LINK v. ARS NATIONAL SERVICES, INC.

Filing 22

ORDER. For the reasons stated in the Memorandum Order filed herewith, Defendant's Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings (Doc. 10 ) is DENIED. The Magistrate Judge's Report and Recommendations (Doc. 19 ) hereby is adopted as the Opinion of the District Court. Signed by Judge Cathy Bissoon on 12/8/15. (rld)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

TERRI LINK,
Plaintiff,
v.
ARS NATIONAL SERVICES, INC.,

Defendant.

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Civil Action No. 15-643
Judge Cathy Bissoon
Magistrate Judge Robert C. Mitchell

MEMORANDUM ORDER
This case was referred to United States Magistrate Judge Robert C. Mitchell for pretrial
proceedings in accordance with the Magistrates Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 636(b)(l)(A) and (B), and
Local Rule of Civil Procedure 72.
On November 2, 2015, the Magistrate Judge issued a Report (Doc. 19) recommending
that ARS National Services, Inc.’s (“Defendant’s”) Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings (Doc.
10) be denied. Service of the Report and Recommendation was made on the parties.
On November 17, 2015, Defendant filed objections to the Report and Recommendation.
On November 25, 2015, Terri Link (“Plaintiff”) filed a Response to Defendant’s objections.
After a de novo review of the pleadings and documents in the case, together with the
Report and Recommendation and the Objections thereto, the Court makes the following findings:
Pursuant to the authority and reasoning stated in the Report (Doc. 19), Defendant’s
objections are overruled. The Report properly extrapolates from the reasoning of the Court of
Appeals for the Third Circuit in Douglass v. Convergent Outsourcing, 765 F.3d 299 (3d Cir.
2014), and two cases from the Middle District of Pennsylvania that post-date Douglass, in

support of the determination that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) prohibits the
disclosure of a unique barcode that, when scanned, reveals an account number identifying
Plaintiff. See Styer v. Prof'l Med. Mgmt., Inc., --- F.Supp.3d. ---, ---, No. 3:14-CV-2304, 2015
WL 4394032, at *7 (M.D. Pa. July 15, 2015) (QR Code); Kostik v. ARS Nat. Servs., Inc., No.
3:14-CV-2466, 2015 WL 4478765, at *1 (M.D. Pa. July 22, 2015) (barcode).
Further, the Court notes that the language of the relevant portion of the FDCPA itself, in
addition to its interpretation by courts, is notably broad. 15 U.S.C. § 1692f(8) (prohibiting the
use of “any language or symbol, other than the debt collector’s address, on any envelope when
communicating with a consumer by use of the mails or by telegram, except that a debt collector
may use his business name if such name does not indicate that he is in the debt collection
business”) (emphasis added), Caprio v. Healthcare Revenue Recovery Grp., LLC, 709 F.3d 142,
148 (3d Cir. 2013) (“As remedial legislation, the FDCPA must be broadly construed in order to
give full effect to these purposes.”). Pursuant to the language of the statute and applicable case
law, the Court denies Defendant’s request that section 1692f(8) be narrowly construed in the
instant case.
The Court specifically overrules Defendant’s contention that the Magistrate Judge
improperly applied a “potential to cause harm standard,” which, according to Defendant, has no
roots in the Douglass decision. The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the court in the
Middle District of Pennsylvania in fact do discuss the “potential to cause harm” as a relevant and
material consideration in FDCPA cases. Moreover, the “potential to cause harm” consideration
is analytically consistent with the “benign language exception,”—the application of which
Defendant argues for in its briefing (Doc. 11 at 5) — as something that causes harm necessarily
fails to qualify as “benign.”

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For the reasons stated in the Report and herein, the following Order is entered:
The Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings filed by Defendant (Doc. 10) is DENIED.
The Magistrate Judge’s Report and Recommendation dated November 2, 2015, (Doc. 19) hereby
is adopted as the Opinion of the District Court.
IT IS SO ORDERED.

December 8, 2015

s\Cathy Bissoon
Cathy Bissoon
United States District Judge

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