Credit Card Receipt Safety Gets Strong Protections Under FACTA

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, or FACTA, was passed in 2003 as a set of amendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

In this round of amendments, Congress included many different new provisions that were designed to protect consumers’ credit records and credit card receipt safety.

Thanks to FACTA, for example, consumers are now entitled to get at least one free copy of their credit report per year from each of the three major credit reporting agencies.

These credit reports do not necessarily include the consumer’s credit score, but consumers have the option of purchasing a report on their credit score and an explanation of how it was calculated for a reasonable fee.

Consumers can also place fraud alerts on their credit records in the event their sensitive credit information gets exposed.

Fraud alerts may require businesses using a credit report to double-check with the consumer before granting an application for credit, to help ensure that the application isn’t fraudulent.

FACTA also sets up a system of “red flags” – potential signs of identity theft, and rules for how to deal with them. Certain businesses that handle consumer’s sensitive credit information are required to follow these red flag rules.

FACTA Credit Card Receipt Safety

One of the more powerful provisions of FACTA is a rule concerning credit card receipt safety.

To prevent businesses from unnecessarily exposing consumers’ credit or debit card numbers, FACTA limits the amount of card information that can be displayed on an electronically-printed receipt given to the consumer at the point of sale.

A FACTA-compliant receipt should not show the card’s expiration date or any more than the last five digits of the card number.

The law makes an exception for receipts written out by hand or created using now-obsolete imprint mechanisms.

What gives this rule strength is the way FACTA puts enforcement power in the consumer’s hands. The law allows consumers whose credit card receipt safety has been compromised by a noncompliant receipt to sue the business who produced the receipt.

FACTA provides that a plaintiff can collect up to $1,000 in statutory damages per violation. The statutory damages provisions kick in if the plaintiff can show that the violations in question were “willful.”

The act also creates the possibility of collecting punitive damages and reimbursement of attorneys’ fees.

Some business advocates say FACTA provisions for credit card receipt safety are too powerful. The statutory provisions can apply regardless of the size of the transaction recorded in the receipt and without regard for the size of the business.

It’s easy to see how the stakes in a FACTA class action lawsuit can get extremely high. One improperly programmed receipt printer could potentially put out thousands of noncompliant receipts – each one a FACTA violation subject to as much as $1,000 in statutory damages.

Businesses that operate on a nationwide scale, with potentially hundreds or thousands of misprogrammed receipt printers, have been subject to staggeringly huge FACTA damage claims.

Initial estimates of damages in some FACTA lawsuits often are in the millions. Some estimates in claims against big retailers like Costco, Stubhub, or Cost Plus World Market can even reach into the billions.

Free FACTA Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you made one or more purchases and the retailer provided you with a receipt that contained more than the last five digits of your credit or debit card number or the expiration date, you may be eligible for a free class action lawsuit investigation and to pursue compensation for these FACTA violations.

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