ACA International and partner organizations continue to push for delayed implementation of the rule and clarity on its requirements. Editor’s note: This article is available for members only.
6/23/2020 17:00
ACA International, along with partner organizations, Receivables Management Association International, New York State Collectors Association, National Creditors Bar Association and the New York State Creditors Bar Association, has been in discussions with the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) for several weeks now seeking clarification and delayed implementation of the DCA’s new foreign language services rule, which nominally becomes effective this Saturday, June 27.
As a result of these discussions, DCA staff has committed to a 60-day no action period, effectively delaying DCA’s enforcement of the new rule—although the DCA has yet to publish a written no action letter.
Meanwhile, ACA and its partner organizations continue to push for a delayed implementation of the new rule, as opposed to a mere no action period, to ensure that inadvertent non-compliance will not result in plaintiffs’ allegations of Fair Debt Collection Practices Act violations.
Additionally, ACA and its partner organizations have asked—and DCA has agreed—to publish FAQs about the rule to clarify its scope and intent.
The group has specifically requested that the DCA include responses to 22 questions posed by members of the participating organizations. DCA has not yet committed to a release date or format for the FAQs.
According to DCA, the new rule requires debt collectors to:
- Inform consumers—in any initial collection notice and on any public-facing websites maintained by the collector—of the availability of any language access services provided by the collector and of a translation and description of commonly-used debt collection terms in a consumer’s preferred language on the Department’s website;
- Request, record, and retain, to the extent reasonably possible, a record of the language preference of each consumer from whom the collector attempts to collect a debt; and
- Maintain a report identifying, by language, the number of consumer accounts on which an employee of the collector attempted to collect a debt in a language other than English, and the number of employees that attempted to collect on such accounts.
Additionally, according to the DCA, the rule prohibits debt collectors from:
- Providing false, inaccurate, or incomplete translations of any communication to a consumer in the course of attempting to collect a debt; and;
- Misrepresenting or omitting a consumer’s language preference when returning, selling, or referring for litigation any consumer account, where the debt collector is aware of such preference.
Read more about the DCA’s stakeholders meeting with ACA and its partner organizations in coverage from ACA here.