CFPB and FTC file amicus brief in FCRA violation case

The CFPB has announced that the Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission, and the North Carolina Department of Justice have filed an amici curiae brief in support of the consumer plaintiffs in Henderson v. The Source for Public Data, L.P. The case is currently on appeal before the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The plaintiffs allege The Source for Public Data is a consumer reporting agency that uses the internet to obtain public records and assemble them into consumer background check reports for its customers. The district court ruled The Source for Public Data could not be held liable for violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act’s (FCRA’s) procedural requirements when disseminating consumer reports that included false, incorrect, or misleading consumer information because the plaintiffs’ FCRA claims treat The Source for Public Data as a publisher and speaker of third-party information and are therefore barred under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

The CFPB and its partners contend that Section 230 does not apply to the plaintiffs’ claims because they challenge The Source for Public Data’s failure to abide by the FCRA’s procedural requirements when it disseminated its own reports.

• Joint statement by CFPB Director Chopra and FTC Chair Khan