Uber, Lyft Hit with Improper Background Check Class Actions

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A California worker has filed two Fair Credit Reporting Act class action lawsuits against the popular ride share companies Uber and Lyft, alleging that by not providing clear background check disclosures to prospective employees, these companies violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act (ICRAA), and the Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act (CCRAA).

Plaintiff Michael Nokchan has filed two FCRA class action lawsuits against his former employers Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc., claiming that these two companies routinely violate FCRA statutes by performing undisclosed background checks on their job applicants. FCRA standards require that a background check disclosure is provided to all prospective employees in a clear, stand-alone document. The plaintiff claims that both Lyft and Uber provide background check disclosures, but that these disclosures are buried underneath extraneous information in other hiring paperwork.

According to each of Nokchan’s FCRA class action lawsuits against Uber and Lyft:

“Plaintiff alleges that Defendants routinely acquire consumer, investigative consumer and/or consumer credit reports (referred to collectively as ‘credit and background reports’) to conduct background checks on Plaintiff and other prospective, current and former employees and use information from credit and background reports in connection with their hiring process without complying with the law.”

Nokchan was formerly employed by both Lyft and Uber as “an hourly, non-exempt employee” in the state of California. He is filing these Lyft and Uber FCRA class action lawsuits on behalf of himself and on behalf of three consumer classes.

• FCRA Class: This includes all current, former, and prospective job applicants who applied to work at Uber or Lyft in the U.S. within the last five years prior to the filing of these FCRA lawsuits.
• ICRAA Class: This Class includes all current, former, and prospective job applicants who applied to work at Uber or Lyft in California within the last five years prior to the filing of these FCRA lawsuits.
• CCRAA Class: This Class includes all current, former, and prospective job applicants who applied to work at Uber or Lyft in California in the last seven years prior to the filing these FCRA lawsuits.

In both the Uber FCRA class action lawsuit and the Lyft FCRA class action lawsuit, Nokchan brings identical allegations against the two ride share companies, which include claims of failure to make disclosure in violation of the FCRA, failure to give proper summary of rights in violation of FCRA, failure to make proper disclosure in violation of the ICRAA, failure to make proper disclosures in violation of the CCRAA.

In these Lyft and Uber FCRA class action lawsuits, Nokchan is seeking Class certification, statutory penalties, civil penalties, punitive damages, costs of bringing these lawsuits to court, interest, reasonable attorney’s fees, and other forms of relief deemed fit by the court.

Nokchan is represented by Shaun Setareh and Tuvia Korobkin of Setareh Law Group.

The Lyft FCRA Class Action Lawsuit is Nokchan v. Lyft Inc., Case No. 3:15-cv-03008, and the Uber FCRA Class Action Lawsuit is Nokchan v. Uber Technologies Inc., Case No. 4:15-cv-03009, both filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.