FACTA Credit Card Receipts Lawsuit Investigation

Our financial fraud attorneys are speaking with consumers whose credit card information was printed on merchant receipts in violation of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA).

Under FACTA, businesses are prohibited from electronically printing more than the last five digits of a credit card number or its expiration date on receipts.

As Gibbs Law Group’s Aaron Blumenthal explains, including a significant portion of a credit card number or expiration date on printed receipts exposes consumers to financial fraud and identity theft. This so-called dumpster-diving credit card fraud occurs when fraudsters obtain discarded receipts that contained sufficient information with which to commit financial or identity fraud.

FACTA: History and Remedies

Congress passed a law to address this problem called the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), which prohibits businesses from electronically printing more than the last five digits of the card number or the expiration date on any receipt provided at the point of sale. FACTA, which was signed into law in 2003, is an amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

In addition to addressing the problem of credit card information on receipts, FACTA prevents identity theft and improves the accuracy of consumer records in other ways.

FACTA also allows consumers to:

• Request and obtain a free credit report once every twelve months from each of the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion)
• Place alerts on their credit histories if identity theft is suspected

Furthermore, FACTA required that regulations to be drafted regarding disposal of records containing consumer information.

In 2008, FACTA was amended by the Debit Card Receipt Clarification Act.

Merchants across the country believed that they were in compliance with FACTA by truncating the credit card number without removing the expiration date. The Clarification Act reiterated that FACTA required both truncation of the credit card number and removal of the expiration date. Businesses that printed an expiration date and otherwise complied with FACTA between 2004 and 2008, however, were not penalized.

FACTA Settlements

Many classes of individuals whose rights have been violated under FACTA have received substantial settlements:

• Spirit Airlines
  Approximately 350,000 consumers obtained a total of $7,500,000 after Spirit Airlines allegedly printed more than the last five digits of customers’ credit card numbers.
• LabCorp
  Approximately 665,000 people obtained a total of $11,000,000 after LabCorp allegedly printed expiration dates on receipts.
• Doctors Associates, Inc.
  Approximately 2.6 million consumers obtained a total of $30,900,000 from Doctors Associates Inc., which does business as Subway, for allegedly printing expiration dates on receipts.