LexisNexis Pays $13.5M Fair Credit Reporting Class Action Settlement

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A $13.5 million class action settlement against LexisNexis Risk & Information Analytics Group, Inc. alleging that it violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) was given final approval by a Virginia federal judge Friday.

LexisNexis has a service for debt collectors called Accurint, in which it sells financial information about debtors they are trying to collect on.

According to the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit, LexisNexis has sold its “Accurint brand reports to debt collectors without treating the reports as ‘consumer reports’ within the meaning of the the FCRA,” U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer explained in his final ruling.

LexisNexis has argued “that Accurint reports are not ‘consumer reports’ within the meaning of the FCRA, and as a result, have not attempted to afford customers with respect to the Accurint reports that the FCRA requires with respect to ‘consumer reports.'”

The LexisNexis class action lawsuit included two classes — the impermissible use class and the file request and dispute class.

The impermissible use class includes “every person listed in the Accurint reports.”

The file request and dispute class is for every person who requested a copy of their file” from LexisNexis and “every person who filed a dispute regarding the information reported,” from Oct. 1, 2006 through April 29, 2013, which is about 31,000 people.

Each person that falls in this class will receive about $300, unless they either excluded him or herself from the settlement or objected to it by July 12, 2013. If a class member received a postcard notifying them of this class action settlement, he or she does not have to do anything to receive their settlement payment.

The impermissible use class will receive injunctive relief. This class includes about 200 million people.

LexisNexis “will implement a substantial, nationwide program that addresses the issues raised in the complaint . . . and will result in a significant shift from the currently accepted industry practices.”

As a result, LexisNexis will “become the industry leader among data aggregation companies in the protection of customer information provided to debt collectors.”

Specifically, LexisNexis “will overhaul their currently existing Accurint for Collections (AFC) suite of products for the Receivables Management Market, which they currently do not treat as ‘consumer reports’ as defined by the FCRA,” Judge Spencer explained.

“The Defendants will split AFC into two newly developed suites of products and services,” he wrote. “The first suite, called ‘Collections Decisioning,’ falls within the FCRA definition of a ‘consumer report’ and will be treated as such.

“The second suite, called ‘Contact & Locate,’ will not be treated as falling within the ‘consumer report’ definition under the FCRA because the Parties agree it does not fall within the FCRA definition,” he added.

In 2013, LexisNexis agreed to the allegations by the class, that it violated the FCRA.

However, Judge Spencer explained that the Federal Trade Commission sees it differently.

“In this case, all of Plaintiffs’ claims are predicated on Accurint reports being deemed “consumer reports” within the meaning of the FCRA,” Judge Spencer wrote. “However, the FTC in 2008 voted unanimously that Accurint for Collection reports do not fall within the FCRA and do not involve credit reports.”

“Absent some authority to the contrary, the merit of Plaintiffs’ claims — and, necessarily, the absent class members’ theoretical future claims — is speculative at best,” he contends.

“For this reason, the benefit of substantial relief without the risk of litigation demonstrates the adequacy of the Settlement Agreement,” he added.

Information for receiving a settlement check is provided by a website set up for the purpose of informing class members.

Please let Top Class Actions know in the comments section if you receive a check from this LexisNexis class action settlement.

The LexisNexis Accurint Fair Credit Reporting Class Action Lawsuit is Gregory Thomas Berry et al., v. LexisNexis Risk & Information Analytics Group, Inc. et al., Case No. 3:11-cv-00754-JRS in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division.

The class is represented by Leonard Bennett of Consumer Litigation Associates, Dale Pittman, Michael Caddell of Caddell & Chapman, and James Francis of Francis & Mailman.