According to a new class action Complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, Discover Bank (“Discover”) and Kohn Law Firm S.C. (“Kohn”) violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) by publishing consumers’ credit scores as part of state court collection actions in Wisconsin state courts.

The named plaintiff, Sasha Rizzo, defaulted on her Discover credit card account and the defendants subsequently filed a state court collection complaint.  The complaint sought to recover almost $5,000 against Rizzo for the unpaid balance on the credit card.  The defendants allegedly attached a copy of Rizzo’s credit score information to the complaint.

Rizzo now claims that the credit score constitutes part of her credit history as shown in her “consumer report” and the alleged “illegal use and/or publication of Plaintiff Rizzo’s credit score violated” the FCRA and the FDCPA as the defendants did not have “a permissible purpose for using and/or publishing such protected personal private information.”  Plaintiff also claims that the invasion of her privacy constitutes an injury-in-fact as required by the Supreme Court’s decision in Spokeo.

Plaintiff seeks to certify two Wisconsin-based classes.  The first “FCRA class” includes “all current and former customers of Defendant Discover in the State of Wisconsin that have had their consumer report published in circuit court collection actions” within the past two years.  The second “FDCPA class” includes “all current and former customers of Defendant Discover in the State of Wisconsin that have had their consumer report/credit score published in state court collection actions by Defendant [Kohn]” within the past year.

We will continue to monitor the case for new developments.