Airgas Hit with FACTA Class Action over Credit Card Receipts

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A class action lawsuit has been filed in Illinois against Airgas Inc. alleging that the company violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) when it printed credit card expiration dates on receipts.

Lead plaintiffs Mario Aliano and Nguyen Buren allege in their class action lawsuit that Airgas routinely prints expiration dates and the last four digits of customers’ credit and debit cards on its receipts in violation of an amendment to the FCRA, known as the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA). According to the Airgas class action lawsuit, FACTA only allows either the last digits of consumer credit or debit cards or the expiration dates to be printed on receipts.

Both plaintiffs allege that they received receipts from Airgas that contained both the last four digits of their credit cards and the expiration dates. The FACTA class action lawsuit alleges that Airgas has admitted to the error in previous litigation for receipts printed in 2011 and 2012.

The plaintiffs argue that including both sets of information on receipts make it possible for credit and debit card information to be stolen or replicated. “On information and belief, it is possible to replicate a card number using the last four digits of the card number and the expiration date,” contend the plaintiffs in the Airgas FACTA class action lawsuit.

The plaintiffs also point out in their class action lawsuit that the FACTA amendment to the FCRA was enacted over 10 years ago and businesses were required to comply by December of 2006. “Defendants have negligently, recklessly and/or willfully violated this law and failed to protect plaintiffs, and others similarly situated, against identity theft and credit card and debit card fraud by continuing to print the expiration date of the card number on receipts,” the FACTA class action lawsuit alleges.

“Most of defendants’ business peers and competitors readily brought their credit card and debit card receipt printing process into compliance with FACTA by, for example, programming their card machines and devices to prevent them from printing the expiration date of the card upon the receipts provided to the cardholders,” further allege the plaintiffs in their Airgas class action lawsuit. The plaintiffs contend that Visa required its merchants to only print the last four digits of credit card numbers prior to 2006. “Defendants could have readily done the same,” point out the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs also note that the Federal Trade Commission issued an alert to businesses about the FACTA requirements in 2007.

The plaintiffs argue that Airgas should be required to pay statutory damages of $100 to $1,000 on behalf of the Class for each alleged violation of the FCRA, and also request attorneys’ fees and costs.

The plaintiffs are represented by Thomas A. Zimmerman, Adam M. Tamburelli and Matthew C. De Re of Zimmerman Law Offices PC.

The Airgas FACTA Class Action Lawsuit is Aliano, et al. v. Airgas USA LLC, et al., Case No. 14CH20024, in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Ill., Chancery Division.

UPDATE: Airgas has agreed to settle the FACTA class action lawsuit. To learn more about the Airgas class action settlement, visit our open settlement page. You can also visit https://eclaim.kccllc.net/caclaimforms/abu/home.aspx to file a claim.