What You Need to Know About Filing a Credit Card Receipt Lawsuit

Have you received a credit card or debit card receipt that shows either the expiration date of your card or more than the last five digits of your card number?

If so, you may be able to obtain compensation under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) for your damages through a credit card receipt lawsuit.

To address the alarming statistics of identity theft and fraud, Congress responded by passing the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), a series of consumer protection laws meant to protect privacy and prevent personal information from being seen and potentially misused by others.  As such, credit card and debit card receipts should not show the expiration date or any more than the last five digits of the card number.

If you received a transaction receipt that shows more than five digits or the expiration date, the distributor of the receipt is not in FACTA compliance and your federal rights may have been violated.

What is FACTA?

FACTA is an amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act that was enacted, primarily, to protect consumers from identity theft. The Act stipulates requirements for information sharing, reporting accuracy, and information disposal.

Some of the more prominent details of FACTA compliance include:

• The three major credit reporting agencies are required to provide consumers’ credit reports to the consumer once a year, without charge.
• Consumers can place an alert message on their files if they suspect they have been victims of fraud.
• Systems that print payment card receipts must employ PAN (personal account number) truncation so that the consumer’s full account number is not viewable on the slip.

Truncation and FACTA Compliance

The “truncation” provision prohibits a person or business who accepts credit and debit cards for the transaction of business from printing more than an alloted number of digits of the card number on the receipt. It also prohibits printing the full card expiration date.

The requirement does not apply to transactions in which the credit or debit card account number is entered by handwriting or by an imprint or copy of the card.

Any person or business who negligently violates FACTA truncation requirement could be held liable for actual damages, as well as attorneys’ fees through a credit card receipt lawsuit.

More significantly, in the case of “willful” violations, FACTA provides for recovery of statutory damages of not less than $100 but not more than $1,000 per violation, as well as punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.

Most of the cases filed to date do not allege actual damages, however, and rely upon the FACTA provision that allows a plaintiff to seek statutory damages if the plaintiff proves the defendant willfully violated FACTA.

Filing a Credit Card Receipt Lawsuit

FACTA compliance requires businesses that accept credit and debit cards to redact customers’ information from receipts. The card’s expiration date and all but the last five digits of the credit and debit card number are all that is allowed to be shown.

A credit card receipt lawsuit may help a consumer obtain damages for “negligent” noncompliance with FACTA are limited to actual injuries, such as identity theft. “Willful” noncompliance, by contrast, carries potential damages of $100 to $1,000 per customer as well as punitive damages. Any merchant that continues to print non-FACTA compliant receipts may be subject to a credit card receipt lawsuit and enormous statutory damages for putting individuals at risk for identity theft.

As a consumer, if your debit or credit receipt was printed showing the last five digits of your card number, expiration date, or any other data that puts you at risk for identity theft, you may have grounds to file a credit card receipt lawsuit.

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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