The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, covering
Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, recently decided in Hunstein v.
Preferred Collection and Management, Inc., that a debt
collector's communication with its third-party vendor violated
section 1692c(b) of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
("FDCPA"), which prohibits a debt collector for
communicating, in connection with the collection of any debt, with
an unauthorized third party.
The FDCPA and Regulation F
In 1977, Congress enacted the FDCPA to eliminate
abusive debt collection practices by debt collectors. Section
1692c(b) of the FDCPA generally provides that, except with respect
to seeking location information:
without the prior consent of the
consumer given directly to the debt
collector, or the express permission of a court of competent
jurisdiction, or as reasonably necessary to effectuate a
postjudgment judicial remedy, a debt collector
may not communicate, in connection with the collection
