On February 28, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) jointly issued a Request for Information, seeking public comment on how background screening affects individuals seeking rental housing in the United States. Specifically, the Request seeks information on the use of consumer reports and credit scores, criminal and eviction records, and

A new Fourth Circuit decision has thrown out of federal court a state-law privacy claim where the plaintiff alleged only a bare statutory violation without alleging “a nonspeculative, increased risk of identity theft,” holding that the plaintiff alleged no Article III injury.

As background to the February 21, 2023 decision in O’Leary v. TrustedID, Inc.

As previously reported here, on May 25, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) published a blog post, examining what it described as the “practice of suppressing payment data” by credit card issuers in connection with their credit reporting. In its blog post, the CFPB alleged its research conducted in 2020

On February 14, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a report entitled Market Snapshot: An Update on Third-Party Debt Collections Tradelines Reporting. The report sought to examine trends in the reporting of debt in collections from 2018 to 2022. Based on the CFPB’s Consumer Credit Panel, a nationally representative sample of approximately five

In a recent decision, a Michigan district court found that because there was a genuine issue of fact as to whether the defendant debt collector notified the consumer reporting agency (CRA) to remove a disputed debt notification from the plaintiff’s tradeline, the case could proceed to trial.

In Evans v. Merchants and Medical Credit Corp.

The Middle District of Florida rounded out 2022 by ruling in conformance with Eleventh Circuit precedent that plaintiffs must have a factual, rather than legal, dispute to bring suit against a credit furnisher under §1681s-2b of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

In Belair v. Holiday Inn Club Vacations Inc., the plaintiffs contracted to

As discussed here, on October 27, 2022, the CFPB released an Outline of Proposals and Alternatives Under Consideration for public comments on the CFPB’s Section 1033 rulemaking. The window for providing written feedback closed on January 25, 2023. Below we have highlighted some of the submissions by industry and consumer groups.

The proposed rules

On January 20, Representative Steve Cohen (D-Tenn) introduced the Keeping Evictions Off Credit Reports Act, H.R. 408, in the U.S. House of Representatives seeking to prohibit evictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic from appearing on consumer reports. This is the third time that Representative Cohen has proposed this legislation. Representatives Bennie Thompson (D-MS), Yvette

On January 4, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued its 2022 Fall Rulemaking Agenda containing pre-rule, proposed rule, and final rules under consideration. The CFPB releases regulatory agendas twice a year in voluntary conjunction with a broader initiative led by the Office of Budget and Management to publish a Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory actions across the federal government. In the preamble to the Federal Register notice, the CFPB states that the information is current as of September 30, 2022 and identifies regulatory matters the CFPB “reasonably anticipates” having under consideration during the period from December 1, 2022, to November 30, 2023. The CFPB has not yet posted a blog or issued a press release about the agenda.

Should credit reporting agencies (CRAs) be held liable under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) for alleged reporting inaccuracies that turn on legal disputes? According to the Second Circuit in a recent decision, the answer is no. The appellate court held the “FCRA does not require” CRAs to “resolve unsettled legal questions.” However, the