Plaintiff: Too Many Credit Card Digits on Receipts for Traffic Tickets

The number of credit card digits on receipts is the focus of a FACTA class action lawsuit filed by a Florida woman over traffic ticket receipts.

Plaintiff Nataly Cano Lopez claims Miami-Dade County, county Clerk of the Courts Harvey Ruvin and online banking intermediary N. Harris Computer Corp. committed violations of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) when the printed receipt that was handed to her upon paying a parking ticket included too many numbers. The receipt included the first six numbers and last four of the credit card she used to pay for the ticket.

FACTA dictates that only the last five digits of the credit card number may appear on an electronically generated receipt, and the card’s expiration date must not appear. Too many credit card digits on receipts can expose the receipt issuer to civil liability.

In 2003, FACTA was introduced to reduce the risk of identity theft and credit card and debit card fraud. As an amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, FACTA stipulates that the credit or debit card numbers on a receipt must be truncated, meaning all of the digits should not appear on the printed receipt.

Miami-Dade Defends Credit Card Digits on Receipts

Miami-Dade and the other defendants argue that Lopez has not suffered any real harm from the alleged violation. Lawyers for the defendants point to a decision made in Spokeo v. Robins that determined FACTA violations alone are not enough to justify standing.

“The Supreme Court left it to the lower courts to determine the circumstances in which a plaintiff suffers a concrete injury,” wrote the defendants regarding credit card digits on receipts in the Spokeo case. “In respect of technical violations of FACTA, courts have been nearly uniform in their response – printing additional information on a credit card receipt does not, by itself, constitute a concrete injury or satisfy Article III’s standing requirement.”

Businesses that do not comply with FACTA receipt rules can face law enforcement action by the FTC. Both civil penalties and injunctive relief have been applied in various cases. In Nataly’s case, the “business” is the Miami-Dade county government.

A consumer who finds a merchant has “willfully” not complied with FACTA during a purchase can file a lawsuit if more than five digits of a credit card number and/or the expiration date appear on the receipt.

Businesses found liable can pay anywhere from $100 to $1,000 per violation, or the monetary loss the infraction caused.

Nataly has stated that only she and her attorneys have seen the printed receipt, but she filed the FACTA lawsuit in August 2015 because when she saw 10 total credit card digits on her receipt, she knew the county and its card processor had violated the law.

She alleges that a prolific identity theft could figure out the missing digits relatively easily by using mathematical modeling, and such a possibility places her identity at risk.

Nataly seeks statutory damages for privacy violations.

The Credit Card Digits on Receipts Lawsuit is Cano Lopez v. Miami-Dade County, et al., Case No. 1:15-cv-22943 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

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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