Earlier this month, Maneesha Mithal, Associate Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance regarding consumer report accuracy and the FTC’s efforts to improve accuracy through education and enforcement.  Her testimony emphasized the impact that consumer report errors may have on a consumer’s ability to obtain credit or other benefits.  Ms. Mithal also reiterated that “vigorous enforcement” of the Fair Credit Reporting Act is a “high priority” for the agency. 

As described in Ms. Mithal’s testimony, the FTC has enforced many different aspects of the FCRA in the past decade, from imposing a $2.6 million civil money penalty against HireRight for providing employment background screening services without complying with the FCRA to a $2.5 million fine against Asset Acceptance, LLC for furnishing inaccurate information to consumer reporting agencies.  In addition, the FTC recently has sent letters to data broker companies and letters to operators of websites that share consumers’ rental histories with landlords informing the recipients that they may be subject to the FCRA.  

We expect the FTC and CFPB to continue to prioritize FCRA enforcement going forward.