Plaintiff Targets Parking Company in New Credit Card Receipt Lawsuit

A California man has hit Ace Parking Management with a credit card receipt lawsuit, alleging that the company printed credit card information on his receipt in violation of FACTA.

Ace Parking is a parking lot and garage management company based in San Diego, Calif. Ace Parking has a wide reach, servicing around 250,000 customers each day.

The plaintiff, Joseph S., is a San Diego resident, alleges that he parked his car in one of Ace Parking’s lots in La Jolla on Nov. 8 of this year. According to Joseph’s credit card receipt lawsuit, he used his Visa debit card to pay at one of their parking kiosks, he claims, and received a receipt for the transaction that displayed the last four digit of the card number, as well as the card’s full expiration date.

Businesses are required under the rules of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) to censor certain information on credit card receipts that would otherwise allow potential identity theft or fraud to occur.

Ace Parking correctly censored Joseph’s credit card number according to FACTA regulations. The expiration date, however, is another matter. Because Joseph was familiar with FACTA basics, he was able to check for compliance on this receipt—and able to file a credit card receipt lawsuit when he discovered a potential violation.

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act was passed in 2003 to help protect customer account information. Businesses have been expected to be fully FACTA-compliant since 2006.

But FACTA compliance cannot be ensured by the rules alone—it also helps for customers to make a habit of checking their receipts to make sure that these rules were adequately followed. A FACTA violation can indicate that hundreds or thousands of other customers may also have been affected by the same violation.

Checking for FACTA Violations

There are two main credit card receipt rules in FACTA. The first deals with the credit or debit card number. According to FACTA rules, the card number should be truncated, or shortened, to show only the last five digits or fewer, with the rest censored. Receipts may not display any numbers from anywhere else in the card number, even if it’s five digits or fewer.

Since receipts cannot show digits from elsewhere in the card number, this is not allowed on a receipt, even though fewer than five digits are displayed:

1234 **** **** ****

Besides the card number itself, the other important piece of FACTA compliance is the card’s expiration date. Businesses must censor the entirety of the expiration date. Having any portion of the expiration date displayed risks a violation of FACTA.

Filing a FACTA Credit Card Receipt Lawsuit

Printing receipts is a largely automated process now, so businesses only have to make sure their machines are up-to-date to ensure they comply fully with FACTA rules. Consumers are in the best position to check for FACTA violations. By reporting FACTA violations, a consumer may even be able to protect the information of others that may have been exposed as well.

Since the proof of FACTA violation is found printed clearly on the bottom of receipts, it is simple enough to acquire evidence. If your receipts do not follow FACTA regulations for both card numbers and expiration dates, then you may be able to file a credit card receipt lawsuit over the violation. Consumers who report violations of FACTA regulations may even be eligible for a damage award of up to $1,000 per violation of FACTA receipt rules.

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