A NOTE FOR THE NEED TO REGULATE PRIVATE DEBT COLLECTORS’ ACTIVITIES IN GEORGIA – EXISTING REGULATORY GAP AND SELECTED COMPARATIVE APPROACHES

Abstract

The economic recession, COVID-19 pandemic, growing indebtedness of the consumers, and enhancement of credit borrowings such as credit cards, personal and household loans have led to the growing numbers of the credit default, and the subsequent surge of the debt collection practices in the World and Georgia is no exception. Even though private debt collection is necessary on the market, it usually involves abusive or unfair practices towards the debtors in the debt recovery process. This Article identifies an existing regulatory gap in the field of private debt collection and analyzes traditional branches of Georgian law to answer the question of whether they can tackle and prevent abusive and unfair debt recovery practices. It also gives an overview of the selected regulatory responses – Anglo-Saxon systems (the United States and the United Kingdom) possessing the most developed system. The specific focus rests on the building blocks of an efficient regulatory system touching upon the private debt collection activities with the idea that will follow the best practice and fill the regulatory gap.

Keywords

• private debt collection
• abusive and unfair practices
• harassment
• validation of debt
• licensing
• private action
• public action