Bill > HR7588

This bill, titled the "Eliminating Fraud in the CFPB’s Complaint Database Act," aims to enhance the integrity of consumer complaints submitted to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). It mandates that individuals submitting complaints must attest, under penalty of perjury, that the information provided is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge, and that the complaint is being submitted directly by the consumer or by an authorized representative who can provide proof of identification and a signed authorization. Furthermore, consumers must confirm they have directly informed the company they are complaining about the issue at least 60 days prior to filing the complaint. The bill also outlines procedures for the CFPB to notify consumers if their name was used without authorization and to inform the company about the unauthorized submission. It defines "sufficient proof of identification" to include documents like Social Security numbers, birth certificates, or government-issued IDs. Importantly, companies required to respond to complaints will be allowed to close complaints if they are duplicative, frivolous, unauthorized, submitted for fraudulent purposes, or if the company was not given the required 60-day notice or had already resolved the issue. The CFPB will be notified of any such closures and the reasons why. Finally, the bill ensures that the narrative details of individual consumer complaints and company responses remain confidential and are not publicly published, though aggregated data and trend analyses can be shared as long as they do not identify individuals.