A recent appeals court ruling out the 11th Circuit in Florida found that Ocwen Loan Servicing, a debt collector, violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) by charging service fees for the use of its online portal to make account payments.
The FDCPA prohibits the "collection of any amount (including any interest, fee, charge, or expense incidental to the principal obligation) unless such amount is expressly authorized by the agreement creating the debt or permitted by law." Because Ocwen Loan Servicing was not a party to the agreement, and the agreement didn't authorize service fees for making payments to a debt collection agency, the fees that Ocwen were charging were a violation of the law. As a result, the plaintiffs who sued Ocwen were entitled to recover actual damages - the amount that they had paid in service fees.
The entire opinion in the case is available at this link.
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