Dynamic Accident Lawyers: FACTA Class Action Lawsuits End in Big Settlements

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) includes provisions for statutory damages that can mean big payouts for plaintiffs in FACTA class action lawsuits.

Congress passed FACTA in 2003 in response to increasing concerns about identity theft and credit card fraud.

For credit card receipts printed by an electronic printing system, FACTA forbids the receipt from showing any more than the last five digits of the card number. The receipt must also not display the expiration date. This rule applies to electronically printed receipts only; it does not apply to receipts produced by hand or by the older mechanical imprinting method.

The receipt rule didn’t go into effect immediately when FACTA was enacted in 2003. Congress gave businesses a three-year grace period to give them time to upgrade their equipment into FACTA compliance. Any noncompliant receipt printed after Dec. 4, 2006 could be grounds for a FACTA lawsuit.

Damages Under FACTA

FACTA features a statutory damages provision that favors the successful plaintiff but that has also drawn harsh criticism from business advocates. Congress recognized that proving actual damages is often prohibitively difficult in cases of credit fraud. So they included minimum damage amounts, while still preserving plaintiffs’ option to prove actual damages.

Each FACTA violation could subject a business to a minimum $100 in statutory damages. For each violation that a plaintiff can prove were willful, FACTA provides for a $1,000 damage award.

These statutory damage amounts can add up to big awards for plaintiffs. If a business’s receipt printers are set up to print non-compliant receipts, they can generate a huge number of FACTA violations before the problem is noticed.

And that could lead to millions, or possibly billions, of dollars in FACTA liability. One survey of a sample of FACTA class action lawsuits in California showed alleged damage amounts ranging from $4 billion to nearly $40 billion.

Two recent settlements in FACTA class action lawsuits show how much money can be at stake. Plaintiff Christopher Legg brought a claim against the Laboratory Corporation of America, alleging the company printed card expiration dates on its credit and debit card receipts.

The receipts did show a truncated card number, however Legg argued that the truncation was evidence that LabCorp was aware of FACTA and that their printing the expiration date was a willful violation subject to much higher statutory damages.

In the settlement agreement, LabCorp agreed to pay about $200 to each class member of a class estimated to be as much as 650,000 strong. The company also agreed to upgrade its noncompliant receipt printing system into FACTA compliance.

In the other FACTA class action lawsuit, also brought by Legg, he alleged that Spirit Airlines printed too many digits of the card number on its credit card receipts. Christopher said the receipts showed the first seven and last four digits of the card number. He cited the fact that Spirit faced an earlier FACTA lawsuit in 2010 as evidence that the violations were willful.

Spirit agreed to pay about $265 to each member of the FACTA Class Members. Like LabCorp, Spirit also agreed to fix its noncompliant printing system as a condition of the settlement.

Free FACTA Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you made one or more purchases and the retailer provided you with a receipt that contained more than the last five digits of your credit or debit card number or the expiration date, you may be eligible for a free class action lawsuit investigation and to pursue compensation for these FACTA violations.

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