Record FCRA Verdict Highlights Privacy’s Growing Value

Carlton Fields Special Counsel Sarah Auchterlonie was quoted in the Law360 article, “Record FCRA Verdict Highlights Privacy’s Growing Value.”

A California jury awarded plaintiffs a $60 million verdict against TransUnion in a class action. The plaintiffs alleged that the credit reporting agency conflated a class of more than 8,000 consumers with similarly named terrorists and criminals from a government watch list — a move that later hindered the plaintiffs’ abilities to obtain credit and affected other eligibility decisions, which rely upon consumer reports.

Auchterlonie said, “The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is interesting because it’s really about someone’s reputation, and coming up with a monetary figure to repair damage to your reputation because something was inappropriately placed on your credit report is a little bit of a difficult task. But I imagine in this case that one thing that drove the cost up is the accusations that consumers were in situations where they couldn’t get loans and similar things because the government says they’re terrorists or drug kingpins.”

READ the article. (Subscription required to access article.)

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