MOSCOW, September 30 - RAPSI, Sergei Feklyunin. A commercial court of appeals will hear on October 27 debt collectors' appeal against a commercial court's decision dismissing their lawsuit against the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Protection and Welfare.

The debt collectors believe the watchdog's head Gennady Onishchenko defamed their reputation by making statements about the activities of debt collection agencies, Center for the Development of Debt Collections General Director Dmitry Zhdanukhin said.

At a March 14 news conference, Onishchenko said the organizations scare and intimidate people over the phone, use telephone terrorism, and threaten to put people on blacklists. He added that debt collection agencies violate the law.

The center has requested the watchdog to refute the statements on its website and specifies that not all the organizations described by Onishchenko act in a similar manner.

The Center for the Development of Debt Collections submitted a defamation lawsuit against the service and requested that the service pay one million rubles ($31,204) in compensation.

The Moscow Commercial Court dismissed the lawsuit in August.