On December 2, the court in Lee v. Hertz Corp., No. 15-cv-04562-BLF (N.D. Cal.) granted a motion to dismiss a putative Fair Credit Reporting Act class action against Hertz.  The court’s order, which was based on a finding that the named plaintiffs—Peter Lee and Latonya Campbell—lacked Article III standing, remanded the case to …

On December 2, Judge Valerie Caproni of the Southern District of New York ruled that a class action suit alleging violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act must be arbitrated.  The class plaintiff, Alicia Zambrana, applied for and received a Best Buy-branded credit card from Household Bank N.A. (“HSBC”).  While the court could not …

Petco’s motion to dismiss a background screening class action alleging violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act was recently denied by a district court in the Southern District of California.  In the putative class action, the plaintiffs alleged that Petco’s background check disclosure form violated the FCRA because it was not provided in a stand-alone…

Effective January 3, 2017, the Office of Personnel Management will require that, unless an exception has been granted, federal hiring agencies cannot inquire into an applicant’s criminal history or adverse credit information until after a conditional offer of employment has been made.  This federal initiative is consistent with, and provides a timely reminder of, the …

The FTC issued a new video and updated guide for businesses on how to respond to a data breach.  The three steps identified in the guide and discussed in the video are:

  1. Secure your operations – This step focuses on preventing further attacks due to the same vulnerabilities.
  • Mobilize your breach response team
  • Engage a

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According to a Federal Register notice published on November 29, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is soliciting further comments on its proposal to provide consumers with the option to fill out a short survey on their satisfaction with companies’ resolution of consumer complaints.  In the notice, the CFPB described the proposal:

The purpose of this…

As we previously reported, the named plaintiff in Paci v. Costco Wholesale Corporation filed a Fair Credit Reporting Act putative class action against Costco alleging that the retailer’s receipts contained more digits of the payment card’s account number than is permitted under the Act. 

The parties recently filed cross-motions for summary judgment.  Costco argued …

A district court in the Seventh Circuit has denied a motion to dismiss filed by a collection attorney acting on behalf of a debt collector client, holding that the plaintiff in the case could pursue her claim based on the attorney’s failure to provide his own § 1692g validation notice in an initial communication, even …

The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires that employers provide prospective applicants with a disclosure before obtaining a pre-employment background check from a consumer reporting agency.  This disclosure must be in a single document that consists “solely of the disclosure” that a consumer report may be obtained for employment purposes.  In Burnthorne-Martinez v. Sephora USA, Inc.…

The United States District Court for the Western District of New York recently granted the Federal Trade Commission’s motion for summary judgment and entered a final order against a group of debt collectors who pretended to be affiliated with the government, and ordered them to pay nearly $11 million.   

In Federal Trade Commission v. Federal …