Capital One to pay $2 million to settle suit for harassing calls

For release on December 15, 2022

CONTACT:

Tamalca Harris
Deputy District Attorney
Consumer Protection Unit 
(408) 808-3771

Capital One to pay $2 million to settle suit for harassing calls

Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen announced today that Capital One will pay $2,000,000 to settle a civil lawsuit alleging the bank made unreasonably frequent and harassing phone calls to debtors in California.  In some cases, the bank or its agents called people even after they were accurately told it was the wrong number.

The judgment was entered on December 14, 2022, in Los Angeles County Superior Court and signed by Judge Gregory Keosian. The judgment requires the bank and its agents to implement and maintain policies and procedures to prevent unreasonable and harassing debt collection calls to California consumers, including limiting the total number of calls to each debtor and honoring consumer requests for calls to stop.

DA Rosen said: “The District Attorney’s Consumer Protection Unit is committed to holding banks accountable when they violate the rules of law and civility in pursuing consumers for alleged debts.”

Capital One was ordered to pay $1,450,000 in civil penalties and $300,000 in investigative costs.  Because individualized restitution is not feasible, the judgment requires Capital One to pay $250,000 in alternative restitution to a trust fund to support additional consumer protection efforts by prosecutors.  Capital One worked cooperatively with the prosecutors to resolve the matter.

The case was investigated and prosecuted by the California Debt Collection Task Force, a statewide team comprised of the District Attorney’s Offices in Santa Clara, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Riverside counties. This is the third settlement announced by the task force, following multi-million dollar judgments reached against Synchrony (2021) and Allied (2018). 

###