On April 16, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that the definition of “conviction” under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. 1681, et seq, should be interpreted under federal law, not the law of the state where the criminal record is generated. See Aldaco v. RentGrow, Inc.,
Last week, a Ninth Circuit panel held that plaintiffs in five related cases lacked standing to pursue their FCRA claims. Specifically, the Ninth Circuit held that the allegation that a credit report contained misleading information, absent any indication that a consumer tried to engage in or was imminently planning to engage in any transactions for
A new Florida class action alleges that a car dealership misrepresented that it would make a “soft” credit inquiry, or pull, rather than a “hard” pull – and then made a hard pull. While the lawsuit alleges a straight-up misrepresentation causing harm to the consumer’s credit standing, the lawsuit illustrates the importance of accuracy in
The District Court for the Northern District of Ohio denied defendant JTM Capital Management, LLC’s motion to dismiss consumer plaintiff Carolyn Holloway’s Fair Debt Collection Practices Act complaint in Holloway v. JTM by ruling that JTM’s inquiry into Holloway’s consumer credit report qualifies as an attempt to collect a debt because JTM sought information for
On March 11, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California approved a settlement stipulation between the parties in the long-running Fair Credit Reporting Act litigation involving Spokeo, Inc. See Thomas Robins v. Spokeo, Inc., Case No. 2:10-cv-05306 (C.D. Cal.). The settlement brings an end to the dispute that led to the
On February 26, the Northern District of California held in Banneck v. Federal National Mortgage Association that the defendant, commonly referred to as “Fannie Mae,” was not a consumer reporting agency, or “CRA,” as defined in the Fair Credit Reporting Act, granting summary judgment in a putative nationwide class action. The lawsuit had alleged violations
On February 26, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing entitled “Who’s Keeping Score? Holding Credit Bureaus Accountable and Repairing a Broken System,” with the CEOs of the big three credit bureaus – TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian – testifying. The hearing was the first time the current CEOs of the major credit bureaus have
On February 25, the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reauthorized their Memorandum of Understanding, or “MOU.”
The MOU, which governs the FTC’s and CFPB’s joint operations, focuses on five key areas of cooperation:
On February 7, 2019, AllianceOne Receivables Management, Inc. (“AllianceOne”), a debt collector, agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle a nationwide class action alleging violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) for obtaining consumer reports on individuals with outstanding parking tickets without a permissible purpose.
The parties moved to approve the settlement after more
The Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) issued a joint advisory making financial institutions aware of a recent change to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) that provides that financial institutions may offer to remove defaults in private education loan borrowers’ consumer reports under an approved rehabilitation program.