The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has delivered a novel and highly consequential interpretation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act that is potentially transformative for debt collectors and their third-party service providers.

In Hunstein v. Preferred Collection and Management Services, Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued a decision on a case of first impression, finding that a debt collector’s transmittal of a consumer’s personal information to its letter vendor constituted a prohibited third-party communication “in connection with the collection of any debt” within the meaning of Section 1692c(b) of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”).

Originally published in the July/August 2021 edition of Pratt's Journal of Bankruptcy Law.