Consumers were in the mood to complain and sue in June, according to data released recently by WebRecon. The number of complaints filed by individuals with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the number of lawsuits alleging violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act were all higher in June than they were in May.
The number of FDCPA lawsuits was 2% higher in June than a month earlier, while the number of FCRA lawsuits were up 19% and TCPA suits were up 62% on a month-over-month basis. The number of complaints filed with the CFPB was 16% higher than in May, and through the first half of 2021, the number of complaints is 36% higher than at the same point last year.
Overall, through the first six months of the year, the number of FDCPA suits is down 8.5% compared with last year, and the number of TCPA suits is down 51% (thanks Facebook), while the number of FCRA suits is up 7.4%.
Class actions accounted for 24% of all FDCPA suits, 52% of all TCPA suits, and 2.4% of all FCRA suits, according to WebRecon’s data.
Through the first half of the year, consumers had filed 6,426 lawsuits against companies in the accounts receivable management industry, including 3,344 FDCPA suits, 2,760 suits, and 1,027 FCRA suits.
Attempts to collect a debt that was not owed accounted for 58% of all complaints filed with the CFPB in June. The debt is not yours was the top sub-issue, representing 28% of all complaints, filed by debts incurred as a result of identity theft (20%), and consumers not receiving enough information to verify a debt (16%).
Nearly 40% of all consumers who filed a lawsuit in June had done so at least once before, according to WebRecon.
