Santa Clara DA reaches settlement with Capital One over alleged harassing phone calls
SAN JOSE – The financial corporation Capital One has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a civil suit brought by the Santa Clara District Attorney's office and others for alleged unreasonably frequent and harassing phone calls made to debtors in California, the DA's Consumer Protection Unit announced on Thursday.
The judgement against the company was entered on Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The bank is now required to implement and maintain policies and procedures to prevent unreasonable and harassing debt collection calls in California, including limiting the total number of calls to each debtor and honoring people's request that they stop calling. The Santa Clara DA's office alleges that Capital One would call people again even after they were accurately told that they had reached the wrong number.
Capital One has been ordered to pay $1,450,000 in civil penalties and $300,000 in investigative costs.
"Because individualized restitution is not feasible, the judgement requires Capital One to pay $250,000 in alternative restitution to a trust fund to support additional consumer protection efforts by prosecutors," said the DA's office in a statement, adding that the company "worked cooperatively" with the prosecutors to resolve the matter.
The Santa Clara District Attorney's Office worked in conjunction with DA offices out of San Diego, Los Angeles and Riverside Counties.
Capital One was not immediately available for comment.
