What If Your Entire Credit Card Number is On Your Receipt?

Printing a consumer’s entire credit card number on a receipt exposes the consumer to a risk of credit fraud or identity theft.

Fortunately, a federal law gives consumers a way to hold merchants accountable for the content of their receipts.

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 forbids businesses from printing the entire credit card number on a receipt.

Under FACTA, businesses are limited to printing only the last five digits of the customer’s credit card or debit card number on an electronically-printed receipt issued at the point of transaction. The card’s expiration date also must not appear on the receipt.

This rule, known as FACTA’s truncation requirement, applies only to receipts printed by electronic means. Receipts that are hand-written or created using the older imprint mechanisms are exempt from this requirement.

Does Your Receipt Show the Entire Credit Card Number?

FACTA provides for enforcement of this requirement through a civil lawsuit. For each FACTA violation that a plaintiff can show was “willful,” that plaintiff may be able to recover anywhere from $100 to $1,000 in statutory damages.

These damages can apply regardless of the dollar amount of the transaction – so even a receipt for a $1 purchase can put the merchant on the hood for hundreds of dollars in damages.

For businesses that let their receipt printers print the entire credit card number, those damages can add up pretty fast.

FACTA class action lawsuits have been filed that allege impressive amounts of statutory damages (though how much of those alleged damages the defendant ends up paying depends on the results of trial or settlement).

One FACTA lawsuit filed against retailer Costco alleged damages as much as $17 billion.

FACTA Lawsuits After Spokeo

The statutory damages provisions of FACTA can save a plaintiff the trouble of having to prove that the alleged FACTA violation resulted in any actual harm, like actual credit fraud or identity theft.

But following a recent decision by the Supreme Court, taking advantage of those provisions may be a more complicated affair.

In Spokeo Inc. v. Robins, the Court addressed a situation in which the plaintiff had alleged the defendant had violated certain provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Like the civil action and statutory damages provisions in FACTA, the statute at issue in Spokeo allowed a plaintiff to sue over certain procedural errors.

In a nutshell, the Court said that even when a statute purports to give a plaintiff the right to sue over certain procedural missteps, that plaintiff will not have standing to sue unless they allege some concrete injury resulted from the violation.

At the same time, the Court said that certain “intangible” injuries could be adequate to establish standing. And, the court said, legislatures are in a unique position to determine what intangible injuries satisfy the requirement for standing.

It remains to be seen how Spokeo will affect plaintiffs’ ability to invoke the statutory damages provisions of FACTA.

Potential claimants with a receipt that displays their entire credit card number can consult with a knowledgeable FACTA attorney to get a better idea of their legal options.

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.

Get Started