While there was an uptick in some of the data points tracked by WebRecon in September, the increases — whether comparing the data to August or comparing it to last September — were not that large. The data points that were lower, however, were significantly so.
For example, the number of lawsuits that were filed in September which alleged violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act was 8.5% higher than the number filed in August, while the number of Fair Credit Reporting Act lawsuits was 9.3% higher on a month-over-month basis, but the number of Telephone Consumer Protection Act lawsuits was down by more than 23%.
Overall, through the first three quarters of 2020, the number of FDCPA suits is down 15.5% from the same period of 2019, while the number of FCRA suits is up 3.8% and the number of TCPA suits is up 5.7%, according to WebRecon.
There has been a noticeable slowing of TCPA lawsuits in the past few months. In July, the year-to-date comparison was 12% higher than 2019, and was 9.1% in August, and has now dropped to 5.7% higher than a year ago.
The number of complaints filed by consumers with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was down 0.6% on a month-over-month basis, and is down 3.9% through the first nine months of 2020.
Is the reason the number of TCPA suits dropped so precipitously in September because plaintiffs’ attorneys are holding off filing new suits to see how the Supreme Court rules in its upcoming TCPA case? September does mark the second straight time that the month-over-month total declined, so that could be one possible explanation.
