TCPA Compliance for Debt Collection

There is occasionally a mistaken assumption that debt collection is exempt from the TCPA. However, the TCPA’s regulations apply to debt collection call centers in the same way that they apply to other sorts of telemarketing. That means debt collectors must abide by the statute’s call time restrictions (8 am - 9 pm, recipient’s local time) and rules regarding consent. If you are using an autodialer to call cellphone numbers (as well as VoIP numbers, fax numbers, and anything else where the recipient may be charged on a per-call basis), you must have the recipient’s prior express consent. Courts have generally accepted the argument that, for the purposes of call center collections, a consumer gives express consent if they provide their phone number in the course of conducting the transaction that resulted in the debt being owed.

There was such an exemption from 2015 until 2020 but is no longer in effect. In 2015, Congress added an exemption to the TCPA’s prohibition on the use of autodialers for calls “made solely to collect a debt owed to or guaranteed by the United States.” The next year, the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) filed suit against the FCC over this new exemption. The case made its way through the court system until the summer of 2020, when the Supreme Court determined, in Barr v. AAPC, that the government debt exemption was an unconstitutional, content-based restriction on speech. SCOTUS severed the government debt exemption from the TCPA as a whole.

According to the Federal Reserve, “The FDCPA defines a debt collector as any person who regularly collects, or attempts to collect, consumer debts for another person or institution or uses some name other than its own when collecting its own consumer debts.”

According to the Federal Reserve, “The FDCPA applies only to the collection of debt incurred by a consumer primarily for personal, family, or household purposes. It does not apply to the collection of corporate debt or debt owed for business or agricultural purposes.”

The FDCPA governs communications between debt collectors and debtors conducted via, mail, e-mail, text message/SMS, voice calls, and social media.

Created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is the primary enforcement agency for most debt collection regulations, including those associated with the FDCPA, FCRA, and TILA. The FTC also plays a role in enforcing the FCRA. For more information see our debt collection compliance guide.