In a recent case before the Eleventh Circuit (Oppenheim v. I.C. System, Inc.), the court upheld a jury award of $1,000 in statutory damages and $20,986.21 in attorneys fees and costs against the defendant – a debt collector hired by PayPal to collect monies owed by plaintiff pursuant to PayPal’s contract for services.
Plaintiff used PayPal to process payment for the sale of his laptop to another party over the Internet. After PayPal deposited the payment amount into plaintiff’s personal checking account, it was discovered that the payment was fraudulent. Pursuant to the User Agreement between PayPal and plaintiff, plaintiff assumed the risk for any bad payments. PayPal attempted to exercise its contractual right to reverse the transaction. When plaintiff refused to repay the funds, PayPal hired the defendant, I.C. System, Inc., to collect. Later, plaintiff sued I.C. System, Inc. under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and the Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act (FCCPA) for alleged illegal debt collection practices.