CFPB Denies Data Provider’s Petition to Set Aside CID

Consumer Finance CFPB CIDs FCRA Consumer Reporting Agency

In a Decision and Order released last month, the CFPB denied a Petition to set aside or modify a civil investigative demand (CID) directed to a data provider (“Petitioner”). The order also directed Petitioner to produce responsive information within 10 calendar days. 

The CFPB originally issued the CID on January 5 in connection with its efforts to gather information about Petitioner’s business, products, services, and operations. According to Petitioner, the stated purpose of the CID “purport[ed] to exercise jurisdiction over [Petitioner] under the Fair Credit and Reporting Act (‘FCRA’) or under ‘any other federal consumer financial law.’” On January 25, Petitioner moved to set aside or modify the CID arguing, among other things, that: (i) the Bureau lacks jurisdiction over Petitioner because Petitioner is neither a consumer reporting agency (“CRA”), nor a “covered person” or “service provider” under a “federal consumer financial law”; (ii) the CID’s Notification of Purpose is impermissibly vague in that it fails to adequately state the “nature of the conduct constituting the alleged violation” and/or “the provision of law applicable to such violation”; and (iii) the CID is “impermissibly overbroad and seeks information which cannot possibly be related to or reasonably relevant to the inquiry at hand (which itself remains unclear and undefined).”

Ultimately, the CFPB determined that none of three objections raised by Petitioner “warrant[ed] setting aside or modifying the CID.” In response to the argument that the CFPB lacks jurisdiction, the Bureau interpreted its authority under the Consumer Financial Protection Act to include investigative authority to issue CIDs to “any person” who may have information “relevant to a violation” of any federal consumer financial law, regardless of whether that person or entity is subject to CFPB authority. In response to Petitioner’s argument regarding the vagueness of the CID’s Notification of Purpose, the Bureau stated that the argument fails because “it is well settled that the boundaries of an agency investigation may be drawn ‘quite generally.’” Finally, as to Petitioner’s objection that the CID was overbroad and/or sought irrelevant information, the Bureau concluded that this was merely a restatement of the jurisdictional argument and fails for the same reasons.  The CFPB explained that the question of whether Petitioner is properly subject to CFPB authority need not be answered at the outset of an investigation, because it is the type of question “the investigation is designed and authorized to illuminate.”