District Court approves relief order in Spokeo

Courts FCRA Spokeo Credit Reporting Agency

On March 11, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California approved a stipulation for prospective relief, settling a consumer FCRA action against a purported credit reporting agency (defendant) for alleged procedural violations. In 2016, the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court (covered by a Buckley Special Alert), which remanded the case so the 9th Circuit could fully consider whether the plaintiff had standing under Article III of the Constitution. The approved stipulation lasts three years and, among other things, requires the defendant to (i) post a “clear and appropriately-titled” link to its opt-out privacy form; (ii) create a step requiring that its customers affirmatively agree not to use its information to determine eligibility for a FCRA-related purpose; and (iii) state on all of its webpages that it is not a consumer reporting agency. The order also prohibits the defendant from publishing “any numerical estimates or predictions of consumer credit scores” unless its terms and conditions specify that the information may not be used for FCRA purposes.