Which place’s debt rules apply—and who can help?

S_MA PASS-02 — 940 CMR 38 remaining-evidence investigation

Assigned scope only: authenticate the final operative text of 940 CMR 38.00, Unfair and Deceptive Fees, its adoption/effect chronology, later-history check, and the resulting patches to PASS-01. I did not reopen DMB/noncustodial issues, Massachusetts market access generally, fee examples, or the federal baseline.

Research date: October 24, 2026, Pacific.

Bottom line

The PASS-01 gap concerning 940 CMR 38 can now be materially closed.

1. 940 CMR 38.00 is a duly adopted Attorney General regulation under M.G.L. c. 93A §2(c). The Massachusetts Register filing appears in Issue 1543, March 14, 2025. The filing identifies the Attorney General as agency, identifies the chapter as 940 CMR 38.00, records the December 20, 2023 public hearing/comment period, and contains the regulation's filed text. State Library of Massachusetts+1
2. The regulation itself gives a separate enforcement/applicability date: “acts committed or practices in force as of September 2, 2025.” Thus March 14, 2025 is the adoption/Register date reflected in the filed material, while September 2, 2025 is the regulation's expressly stated enforcement/application date. Those dates should not be collapsed. Massachusetts Government
3. It is not a debt-settlement fee-cap schedule. The final text regulates price presentation, fee disclosure, trial offers, and negative-option/recurring-charge practices. It does not prescribe a debt-settlement setup-fee dollar cap, monthly cap, percentage-of-debt cap, percentage-of-savings cap, per-debt cap, aggregate program cap, or CPI-adjusted ceiling. PASS-01's refusal to invent such an amount remains correct. Massachusetts Government+1
4. It can nevertheless apply to consumer debt-relief services on its face. “Product” includes a service sold for personal, family, or household use; “Targeted To” means used to induce Massachusetts consumers to enter a sale whether or not one occurs; and §38.02 reaches advertising, marketing, solicitation, and offers targeted to or resulting in a sale in Massachusetts. Massachusetts Government+1
5. For a covered service, §38.04 generally requires the seller to present the Total Price from the initial price presentation, disclose the nature/purpose/amount of transaction fees, identify optional or waivable charges and how to avoid them, disclose the final transaction amount before sale, and not falsely characterize a charge as legally required. It also generally requires Total Price disclosure before collecting personal information, subject to enumerated exceptions. Massachusetts Government
6. 940 CMR 38 does not itself authorize a fee. A disclosure rule cannot turn a fee prohibited by another law, premature under another rule, or charged by an unauthorized provider into a lawful fee. Section 38.06 expressly coordinates 940 CMR 38 with specified other legal regimes, and §38.08 preserves federal preemption. Massachusetts Government
7. I found no later 940 CMR 38 amendment or proposed amendment in the Secretary's currently accessible prospective-regulations history through the page published October 23, 2026. The Trial Court Law Libraries' 940-CMR compilation, updated July 17, 2026, also continues to list 940 CMR 38 as the applicable “Unfair and deceptive fees” chapter. This is a materially stronger later-history check than PASS-01, but it is still a bounded public-record negative—not a certified Secretary citator stating affirmatively that no amendment exists. Massachusetts Secretary of State+1

Accordingly, S_MA-P1-C032 should change from “held” to “resolved for the regulation's operative text and basic adoption/effect chronology,” while remaining bounded as to a formally certified complete amendment-history search.

A. Final operative text actually recovered

1. Purpose and consumer scope — §§38.01–38.03

The final filed text says 940 CMR 38 establishes standards defining unfair and deceptive acts and practices concerning:

• fees imposed in marketing, solicitation, and sales;
• trial offers;
• contracts with negative-option features; and
• consumers who are natural persons purchasing, renting, leasing, or bartering products for personal, family, or household use.

Section 38.02 applies it to conduct connected with advertising, marketing, solicitation, or an offer of sale that is “Targeted To or results in a Sale in Massachusetts.” Massachusetts Government

The operative definitions materially relevant to SettleADebt include:

These definitions are visible in the indexed final official Mass.gov text at printed 940 CMR pp.253–254, dated 3/14/25. Massachusetts Government

Debt-relief implication

A consumer debt-settlement or negotiation service offered for household debts fits the regulation's generic word “service” absent some applicable exception or superseding regime. That does not decide whether the provider is otherwise legally permitted to furnish that service; it establishes only that the price-transparency chapter cannot be dismissed merely because the product is intangible or financial-services-related. [S_MA-P2-C003–C004]

2. Price and fee presentation — §38.04

For covered Massachusetts-directed transactions, §38.04 defines the following as unfair or deceptive under chapter 93A:

• failure to disclose the Total Price clearly and conspicuously when price is first presented and afterward;
• failure, when Total Price is first presented, to disclose the nature, purpose, and amount of transaction fees/charges other than qualifying government or shipping charges;
• for optional/waivable charges, failure to identify that fact and give readily available avoidance instructions;
• failure before sale to disclose the final transaction amount and relevant fee information;
• generally requiring personal information before Total Price disclosure, subject to the regulation's enumerated underwriting/availability/legality/regulator-approved-pricing exceptions;
• misrepresenting a fee as required by law; and
• failing to make Total Price the most prominent pricing figure where required. Massachusetts Government

Consequence for SettleADebt

Suppose a provider lawfully may charge a $X enrollment/service/program amount under all other controlling law. 940 CMR 38 answers how covered pricing must be presented; it does not supply the legal entitlement to charge $X.

That distinction closes the PASS-01 ambiguity:

940 CMR 38 is a disclosure/consumer-practice constraint layered onto otherwise lawful transactions—not an affirmative Massachusetts debt-settlement fee permission or maximum-fee table.

[S_MA-P2-C005–C007]

3. Recurring fees and trial offers — §38.05

Section 38.05 applies additional requirements when the product uses a Trial Offer or Negative Option Feature.

The retrieved final text expressly requires, among other things:

• pre-acceptance written disclosure of financial obligations and cancellation dates for trial offers;
• pre-purchase disclosure of recurring/increased charges and the cancellation mechanism for negative options;
• a simple cancellation mechanism that is at least as easy to access/use as the enrollment method;
• notices concerning continuing financial obligations; and
• special notice rules for negative-option features of different durations. Massachusetts Government+1

Therefore:

• a debt-relief agreement that merely has scheduled finite installments is not automatically proven to be a negative-option arrangement;
• an agreement that automatically renews or continues charging because the consumer does nothing can trigger §38.05;
• nothing in §38.05 creates a debt-settlement percentage cap or service-performance trigger comparable to a debt-relief advance-fee rule.

[S_MA-P2-C008]

4. Relation to other law — §§38.06 and 38.08

The final regulation expressly contains a Relation to Other Laws and Regulations section not present in the same form in the original proposal.

Section 38.06 says, among other things:

• compliance with specified motor-vehicle rules constitutes compliance with specified portions of §38.04;
• compliance by specified health-care providers with M.G.L. c.111 §228 constitutes compliance with 940 CMR 38;
• regarding advertising, sale, or renewal of credit, compliance with Massachusetts/federal Truth in Lending requirements by a qualifying creditor constitutes compliance with 940 CMR 38;
• specified securities compliance provides compliance with specified portions.

Section 38.08 says 940 CMR 38 applies unless preempted by federal law. Massachusetts Government

The credit safe-harbor therefore cannot be expanded into a blanket exemption for every company that happens to operate around consumer debts. Its text is tied to the identified credit laws and qualifying creditors.

[S_MA-P2-C009]

5. Enforcement date — §38.09

The final text is explicit:

940 CMR 38.00 applies to acts committed or practices in force as of September 2, 2025.

That is a different proposition from the Massachusetts Register adoption notation showing Issue 1543 / March 14, 2025. Massachusetts Government+1

For this dossier the safe chronology is therefore:

December 8, 2023 — Secretary published notice of proposed rulemaking; hearing/comment deadline set for December 20, 2023. Massachusetts Secretary of State December 20, 2023 — hearing/comment period identified in the official filing record. State Library of Massachusetts March 14, 2025 — final regulation appears in Massachusetts Register Issue 1543; filed text bears the 3/14/25 pagination/date. State Library of Massachusetts+1 September 2, 2025 — §38.09's operative enforcement/application date. Massachusetts Government October 24, 2026 research check — no later amendment/proposal to 940 CMR 38 located in the Secretary's publicly accessible prospective-regulations history through October 23, 2026; current court-law-library compilation still lists chapter 38. Massachusetts Secretary of State+1

B. Adoption versus proposal

The original proposed text must not be mistaken for the final regulation.

The 2023 proposed version was explicitly titled “PROPOSED REGULATIONS 940 C.M.R. 38.00” and had a materially different structure, including different terminology and only §§38.01–38.07 in the indexed proposal. Massachusetts Government

The final regulation:

• uses Negative Option Feature terminology;
• includes the final definitions in §38.03;
• adds §38.06 Relation to Other Laws and Regulations;
• has §38.08 Preemption; and
• expressly adds §38.09 Enforcement Date.

Therefore any table, article, comment letter, or earlier summary based on the December 2023 proposal must be reconciled against the March 2025 final text before being used. [S_MA-P2-C010]

C. What 940 CMR 38 does to the Massachusetts debt-fee conclusions

It DOES establish

For a covered consumer debt-relief service marketed into Massachusetts:

• all-in mandatory price transparency;
• separate truthful identification of fees and their purpose;
• disclosure and avoidance instructions for optional/waivable charges;
• restrictions on labeling fees “required by law”;
• timing of price disclosure relative to collection of personal information;
• additional protections for qualifying trial/negative-option programs;
• a chapter 93A unfair/deceptive-practice framework.

It DOES NOT establish

940 CMR 38 does not, in the recovered final text:

• authorize an otherwise prohibited debt-adjustment business;
• create a commercial debt-settlement license;
• prescribe a setup-fee maximum;
• prescribe a monthly maximum;
• prescribe a percentage-of-enrolled-debt maximum;
• prescribe a percentage-of-savings maximum;
• prescribe a per-account/debt maximum;
• create an aggregate debt-settlement program-fee ceiling;
• create an inflation/CPI adjustment table for debt-settlement charges;
• say that disclosure makes a fee lawful;
• define the separate performance event at which another law allows an otherwise valid provider fee to be earned.

[S_MA-P2-C005–C011]

No new fee example is warranted because the newly authenticated regulation provides presentation rules rather than a new calculable cap or entitlement.

D. PASS-02 source table

E. Material PASS-02 claim table

F. Original PASS-01 claim patch map

No prior Claim ID is deleted or silently rewritten. The patch map supplies the PASS-02 overlay.

G. Failed routes and narrowed dependencies

The important distinction from PASS-01 is that direct Mass.gov-file failure no longer blocks authentication of the regulation itself. It now only limits perfect archival redundancy and a formal certified amendment-history conclusion.

H. Granular PASS-02 scope coverage

I. Researcher self-check

I actually read through public web retrieval:

• the Secretary's December 2023 public-review notice;
• the Massachusetts Register Issue1543 indexed filing material;
• the final 940CMR38 sections exposed from the official Mass.gov regulation object, including §§38.01–38.09 and printed CMR pagination;
• the present Trial Court Law Libraries 940-CMR index; and
• the Secretary's prospective-regulations history through its October23,2026 publication.

I did not treat the original proposed regulation as current law. I did not use company charts, snippets alone, or third-party summaries to establish the operative rule. A nonofficial Cornell result was useful as a discovery/cross-check only; it is unnecessary to the material conclusions above because official Massachusetts evidence now supplies them.

I could not visually screenshot the Massachusetts Register PDF because the official archive redirected the PDF binary to a CDN unavailable to this browsing tool. The official archive's indexed text nevertheless exposed substantive filing content. The direct Mass.gov PDF and guidance download routes still returned403 when explicitly opened. Those failures are reported rather than hidden.

I did not research or imply answers to the DMB/noncustodial cases, full Massachusetts debt-adjustment permission, other fee statutes/regulations, remedies, bonds, agreements, funds handling, litigation, secured debt, locality, tribal issues, or the full state dossier. I did not use Deep Research, Work, Codex, APIs, purchases, account changes, contacts, other chats, private borrower data, local writes, or publication actions.

This self-check is not an independent review. PASS-02 materially closes the 940CMR38 evidence hole only; it does not make Massachusetts, this component as a whole, or A066 publication-ready.

END S_MA PASS-02.