D.C. Circuit affirms denial of CFPB petition to enforce CID issued to college accrediting organization

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The D. C. Circuit has affirmed the D.C. federal district court’s April 2016 denial of the CFPB’s petition to enforce a CID issued to the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) in August 2015.

After denying ACICS’s petition to modify or set aside the CID in October 2015, the CFPB filed a petition in D.C. federal district court to enforce the CID.  The CFPA allows the CFPB to issue a CID to “any person” that the CFPB believes may be possession of “any documentary material or tangible things, or may have any information, relevant to a violation” of laws enforced by the CFPB.  The CID’s Notification of Purpose indicated that the purpose of the CFPB’s investigation was “to determine whether any entity or person has engaged or is engaging in unlawful acts and practices in connection with accrediting for-profit colleges, in violation of sections 1031 and 1036 of the [CFPA prohibiting unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices], or any other Federal consumer financial protection law.”  The CFPB argued that because it has authority to investigate for-profit schools in relation to their lending and financial advisory services, it had authority to investigate whether any entity has engaged in any unlawful acts relating to accrediting such schools.  The district court denied the CFPB’s petition, holding that the CFPB lacked statutory authority to investigate the accreditation process.

In affirming the denial of the CFPB’s petition to enforce the CID, the D.C. Circuit declined to reach the broad question of whether the CFPB had statutory authority “to investigate the area of accreditation at all” and instead stated that it would “confine our analysis to the invalidity of this particular CID.”  More specifically, the D.C. Circuit considered only whether the CID satisfied the CFPB requirement that “[e]ach [CID] shall state the nature of the conduct constituting the alleged violation which is under investigation and the provision of law applicable to such violation.”

The D.C. Circuit concluded that “as written, the Notification of Purpose [in the ACICS CID] fails to state adequately the unlawful conduct under investigation or the applicable law.”  In reaching that conclusion, the D.C. Circuit relied on case law holding that to determine whether to enforce a CID, a court should consider only whether the inquiry is within the agency’s statutory authority, whether the request is not too indefinite, and whether the information sought is reasonably relevant.

The CFPB’s Notification of Purpose defined the relevant conduct constituting the violation under investigation as “unlawful acts and practices in connection with accrediting for-profit colleges.”  According to the D.C. Circuit, because the Notification of Purpose gave “no description whatsoever” of the “unlawful acts and practices” the CFPB sought to investigate, the court “need not and probably cannot accurately determine whether the inquiry is within the authority of the agency and whether the information sought is reasonably relevant.”  The D.C. Circuit noted that the CFPB had argued that, even if it did not have statutory authority over the accreditation process, it had an interest in the possible connection between the lending practices of ACICS-accredited schools and the accreditation process.  However, the court observed that “[e]ven if the CFPB is correct, that interest does not appear on the face of the Notification of Purpose,” and the agency had failed to adequately inform ACICS of the link between the relevant conduct and the alleged violation.

The CID had identified “sections 1031 and 1036 of the [CFPA prohibiting unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices], or any other Federal consumer financial protection law” as the laws applicable to the alleged violation under investigation  The D.C. Circuit determined that the this language was “similarly inadequate” because, coupled with the CID’s failure to adequately state the unlawful conduct under investigation, the statutory references “tell ACICS nothing about the statutory basis for the Bureau’s investigation.”  The court noted that although the CFPA provides detailed definitions of “Federal consumer financial law” and “consumer financial product or service,” the CID “contains no mention of these definitions or how they relate to its investigation.”  It also commented that the inclusion of the “uninformative catch-all phrase ‘any other Federal consumer financial protection law’ does nothing to cure the CID’s defect.”  According to the court, “were we to hold that the unspecific language of this CID is sufficient to comply with the statute, we would effectively write out of the statute all of the notice requirements that Congress put in.”

Because the D.C. Circuit did not reach the broader question of the CFPB’s authority to investigate the accreditation process and “express[ed] no opinion on whether a revised CID that complies with [the CFPA CID requirements] should be enforced,” the CFPB will get another bite at the apple should it decide to reissue the CID.   While the decision will likely result in more detailed Notifications of Purpose in future CFPB CIDs, because it does not substantively change the scope of the CFPB’s broad power to issue CIDs, the decision’s overall impact will likely be minimal.  In addition, there continues to be a fairly low standard for what constitutes relevant information in discovery and litigation.

DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

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