Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, when an employer is considering rejecting an applicant based on a background check (often referred to as a consumer report), it must follow certain “pre-adverse” action procedures.  Specifically, an employer must provide the applicant with a copy of his or her background check and a summary of rights under…

On February 8, 2017, the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice quietly issued new guidance on corporate compliance programs for companies implicated in misconduct. Specifically, the Criminal Division posted a set of “important topics and sample questions that the Fraud Section has frequently found relevant in evaluating a corporate compliance program” to the…

As we previously reported, on January 20, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision of first impression in Syed v. M-I, LLC, a putative class action, when it held that a prospective employer willfully violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by including a liability waiver in its background check disclosure form.  The …

On February 10, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California denied defendant Bebe Stores, Inc.’s motion to decertify the plaintiffs’ proposed classes in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action. 

In Meyer v. Bebe Stores, Inc., the named plaintiffs alleged that they provided their cell phone numbers to Bebe in …

Plaintiff Yvette Palmer filed a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act case against defendant debt collector, Enhanced Recovery Company (“ERC”), for ERC’s alleged concealment of its identity as a debt collector while attempting to collect a debt and to obtain information to collect debt.  ERC filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing …

On February 13, the Federal Trade Commission sent a letter to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Richard Cordray summarizing its 2016 debt collection activities for inclusion in the CFPB’s annual report to Congress on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

In its letter, the FTC describes “its aggressive law enforcement activities against abusive, unfair, and…

The Ninth Circuit recently affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendants in an action under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act regarding text messages about a gym membership.

In Van Patten v. Vertical Fitness Group, LLC, Plaintiff-Appellant Bradley Van Patten visited a Gold’s Gym franchise to obtain information about…

On February 13, a judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York denied a background screening company’s motion to dismiss a putative Fair Credit Reporting Act class action on the basis of the Supreme Court’s holding in Spokeo v. Robins, 136 S. Ct. 1540 (2016).  As has been …

The United States District Court for the Southern District of California recently dismissed all of a plaintiff’s claims in the putative class action Matthew Stuppiello v. Southwest Credit Systems, L.P.   The Court held that a validation notice does not violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by including a request for payment “and explain[ing] …

On February 1, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered payment card companies MasterCard and UniRush to pay $10 million in restitution and a $3 million fine related to service breakdowns that left customers unable to access their funds.  “MasterCard and UniRush’s failures cut off tens of thousands …