Defendant was not a "debt collector" under the FDCPA

Plaintiff secured a line of credit with Defendant to purchase computer equipment.  Thereafter, Plaintiff became delinquent in her payments to Defendant, and Defendant began calling Plaintiff's mobile phone with prerecorded messages regarding the debt.  Plaintiff sent Defendant a letter asking Defendant to cease calling her which was received by Defendant.  Plaintiff asserts that this "letter revoked her consent that she had previously given to the Defendant to place calls to her cellular telephone number."   Plaintiff maintains, however, that Defendant continued to place an additional "forty calls to her cellular phone in less than three weeks.

Defendant filed a Motion to Dismiss the Complaint.  The Court held that Defendant did not qualify as a "debt collector" under the FDCPA.   Creditors who collect in their own name and whose principal business is not debt collection . . . are not subject to the [FDCPA]. . . . Because creditors are generally presumed to restrain their abusive collection practices out of a desire to protect their corporate goodwill, their debt collection activities are not subject to the [FDCPA] unless they collect under a name other than their own.  "Creditors—as opposed to debt collectors—generally are not subject to the FDCPA."   "A 'debt collector' is broadly defined as one who attempts to collect debts 'owed or due or asserted to be owed or due to another.'"   A "creditor," on the other hand, is one who "offers or extends to offer credit creating a debt or to whom a debt is owed."  One cannot be both a "creditor" and a "debt  collector" as defined under the FDCPA because the terms are mutually exclusive.

Motion to Dismiss was granted.

Gager v. Dell Fin. Servs., 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 73752 (M.D. Pa. May 29, 2012).