The FTC has been accused of failing to “meaningfully enforce” the FCRA,[1] but on October 16, 2018, it announced a $3 million settlement with RealPage Inc. (“RealPage”), which it billed the “largest civil penalty the FTC has obtained against a background screening company.” According to the FTC press […]
This week, the district court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania provided us with a simple (and helpful) reminder regarding 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2 claims: All § 1681s-2(b) claims must be initiated by alerting a credit reporting agency of a dispute of erroneous information reported. Consumers cannot maintain […]
In Howard v. Navient Solutions, LLC, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 180022 (W.D. Wa., Oct. 18, 2018), the US District Court for the Western District of Washington recently held that arbitration provisions in promissory notes (“Notes”) signed by the plaintiff were broad enough to encompass her FCRA claim against […]
At a time when some courts allow FCRA claims to withstand motions to dismiss based on largely conclusory assertions of the elements of a FCRA violation (particularly § 1681s-2(b) claims alleging a failure to “reasonably investigate”), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit just issued an […]
In Maria E v. Experian, 2018 WL 2085221 (E.D. KY Feb 27, 2018), the court examined Experian’s inability to provide a credit report for a plaintiff with the last name “E,” and ultimately found that, because Experian never provided a credit report for this person, it could not […]
You cannot sue a state under the FCRA. That is the message that a court delivered to a pro se plaintiff in Pendergrass v. Washington Metro. Area Transit Authority, 2018 WL 4938578 (D. D.C. Oct. 11, 2018). Under the facts of Pendergrass, the Plaintiff applied for a position […]
Recently, we’ve seen a number of state law and common law claims dismissed because those claims are preempted by FCRA. In general, a preemption defense argues that, where a state law could conflict with federal law, only the federal law survives. FCRA contains at least two express preemption […]
The Eastern District of Wisconsin recently confirmed that the permissible purpose for obtaining a consumer credit report under FCRA is broad. In Long v. Bergstrom Victory Lane, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 171750 (E. D. Wisc. October 4, 2018), the plaintiff brought FCRA and other claims after an auto […]
