Avis Hit With FCRA Class Action Lawsuit By Job Applicant

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One of the global rental car leaders Avis was hit with a proposed Fair Credit Reporting Act class action lawsuit on Tuesday, June 9.

Lead plaintiff Angela Fuller of Florida filed the lawsuit against Avis Budget Car Rental LLC after being denied a sales associate position based on a background check that she did not receive a copy of until after the company made their decision. Fuller seeks to represent herself and other potential Class Members who were denied Avis employment due to FCRA violations.

According to the Avis FCRA lawsuit, Fuller was formally offered a sales associate position on July 5, 2013 and signed the employment offer stating her start date would be July 15, 2013. Fuller claims she was required to sign a background check application form which was in violation of FCRA because it did not consist “solely of the disclosure that a consumer report may be obtained for employment purposes.”

When she hadn’t heard if she was cleared to start employment, Fuller made several phone calls and was told they were still waiting for the results. On July 23, 2013, Fuller claims she received a phone call from the Avis Budget Group (ABG) district manager telling her something showed up in her background check that was “unacceptable.” Fuller asked for information about what it could be and the manager told her to “think hard and come clean,” when she still didn’t know, he told her to think “way, way, way back … try 1985.”

Apparently, the background check provided by Sterling Infosystems Inc., which is the self-proclaimed “world’s largest company focused entirely on background checks” found a 28-year-old infraction which resulted in a $40 fine. When Fuller was in college she was fined for consuming a malt beverage in the passenger seat of a car which in the state of North Carolina is considered a noncriminal violation.

Fuller was told via email on July 27, 2013 that she would not be receiving the position after all. She later received a letter that was sent in standard mail Aug. 8, 2013 that stated: “[i]f the accuracy of the information contained in your background report is not successfully challenged, it may result in the revocation of your conditional offer of employment.” But by then she had already been denied the Avis position.

Fuller claims that the behavior demonstration by Avis is in violation of several FCRA laws. Under FCRA, a potential employee should be given a copy of the consumer report before an adverse decision is officially made allowing the applicant to dispute the report. Avis allegedly had already made the decision before she ever saw the report.

Furthermore, FCRA states that convictions of criminal acts cannot be reported more than 7 years after the date. Fuller claims this infraction was not a criminal act and it also occurred nearly 30 years prior to her potential employment.

And finally, Fuller contends that the wording on ABG’s background check application form requires job applicants to waive certain rights which is not permitted under FCRA.

The proposed Avis class action lawsuit is seeking more than $150,000 in actual and punitive damages. Fuller hopes to represent a Class of individuals with similar Avis employment experiences. Once the Avis FCRA class action lawsuit is approved, she expects hundreds if not thousands of Class Members to join.

Fuller is represented by John Soumilas, James A. Francis and Lauren KW Brennan of Philadelphia, Pa.

The Avis FCRA Class Action Lawsuit is Fuller v. Avis Budget Car Rental LLC, et al., Case No. 2:15-cv-03856, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

UPDATE: On Nov. 17, 2017, Avis agreed to a $2.7 million pay out to settle a class action lawsuit alleging the company violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act.