4 Collection Agencies File Motion to Intervene in Support of Appeals of FCC’s July 10, 2015 Declaratory Ruling

On August 7, 2015, MRS BPO LLC, Cavalry Portfolio Services, LLC, Diversified Consultants, Inc., and Mercantile Adjustment Bureau, LLC filed a joint motion for leave to intervene  in the consolidated appeal of the FCC’s July 10, 2015 Declaratory Ruling and Order.

On July 10, 2013 ACA International (the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals) (“ACA”).  ACA filed its petition for review with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on July 10, and filed an amended petition on July 13, 2015.

PACE (the Professional Association for Customer Engagement, Inc.) also filed a petition for review with the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on July 14, 2015. On the same day, Sirius (Sirius XM Radio, Inc.) filed a virtually identical petition for review with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The three petitions for review were then consolidated and randomly assigned to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The motion to intervene is broken into 2 components.

The first: STATEMENT OF THE INTEREST OF THE MOVING PARTIES, addresses what interests the 4 companies have in the case. In this section the companies describe their business, their investments and use of telephony technologies, and the spurious class action cases involving alleged TCPA violations.

The second: GROUNDS FOR INTERVENTION, addresses why the 4 companies have the requisite “standing” of the parties to intervene. To have standing, a party seeking to intervene must show: “(1) injury-in-fact, (2) causation, and (3) redressability. The 4 companies provide information to meet all 3 elements.

If not allowed to intervene, the 4 agencies also make an alternative request to participate in the case as an AMICI CURIAE. (Editor’s Note: Amici Curiae translated is literally “Friend of the Court”. It is someone who is not a party to a case, but offer information that bears on the case.)

insideARM Perspective

insideARM will continue to monitor and report on all aspects of this matter.  The FCC rules as presently written will have a dramatic impact on the ARM industry.  The FCC did not recognize the difference between “robo-calling” telemarketers and businesses that have a legitimate need to contact a consumer.