ACA International and partner organizations pushed for delayed implementation of the rule and clarity on its requirements. Editor’s note: This article is available for members only.
8/6/2020 16:30
On Aug. 6, the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) issued a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) in response to a June 22 request from ACA International and its partner organizations seeking more detail about the DCA’s new foreign language services rules.
The DCA issued the FAQs “to help debt collectors comply with the new rules” and it intends to “to modify the new rules to reflect answers and interpretations in [the FAQs].”
The foreign language rules took effect on June 27, but DCA staff has committed to a 60-day no-action period through Aug. 26, 2020, effectively delaying DCA’s enforcement of the new rules. To this end, the FAQs state: “Because of the COVID-19 crisis, the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) has provided a 60-day enforcement grace period—from June 27, 2020 to August 26, 2020—during which DCA will not issue any new rule violations.” The DCA committed to this no-action period in the course of discussions with ACA’s state advocacy team and partner organizations, including Receivables Management Association International, the New York State Collectors Association, National Creditors Bar Association and the New York State Creditors Bar Association.
In particular, ACA and its partners specifically requested that the DCA respond to 22 questions posed by the organizations. The DCA included only 12 responses, including who bears responsibility for maintaining records of consumers’ language preference; how often debt collectors must request a consumer’s language preference; and whether the new rules apply to creditors attempting to collect debts that are not in default.
Meanwhile, ACA and its partner organizations continue to push for a delayed implementation of the new rules, 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.
According to the DCA, the new rules require 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, the new rules 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.