Spirit Airlines Encounters Difficulty Notifying Class Members in FACTA Settlement

In the process of trying to locate contact information for Class Members in order to notify them of their potential eligibility to benefit from a recent Spirit Airlines FACTA class action settlement, the airline has encountered difficulty in accessing this information.

According to court documents, Spirit has only been able to locate 77,000 of the 370,000 potential class members after the settlement was granted preliminary approval in late October.

Class Counsel indicated that they have made “substantial efforts to try and locate class member contact information elsewhere, including subpoenaing more than a dozen third parties.” At that time, the court extended the due date for notifying the FACTA class action settlement class since not all Class Members had been located.

The plaintiffs then moved to amend the protective order that was entered to be able to more easily access the Class Member contact information from a third party company, Navitare, Inc.

The documents indicated that Navitare was willing to produce the desired information without objection as long as the protective order prohibited disclosure of the contact information to anyone other than the parties’ counsel and the settlement administrator that was appointed by the court.

The court documents explained, “The reason for demanding this condition is that one or more of the airlines whose reservation systems Navitaire hosts are competitors of Spirit’s, and thus they consider their passenger contact information to be sensitive data (akin to a customer contact list) that needs heightened protection.”

The plaintiffs agreed to Navitaire’s request and additional amendments were proposed to the protective order to reflect Navitaire’s request for increased privacy of the information they agreed to share.

While we cannot say with complete certainty, we are speculating at this time that Spirit may need more time past the original Feb. 5, 2016 extension to be able to contact eligible Class Members to notify them of the proposed class action settlement.

We have been unable to locate a Settlement Administrator website at the time of this writing, though we will continue to follow the settlement closely so that we can inform our readers with the most up-to-date information on the Spirit Airlines FACTA class action settlement.

Spirit Airlines FACTA Class Action Settlement

The terms of the class action settlement indicated that Spirit Airlines agreed to pay $7.5 million dollars to resolve claims that the company violated FACTA by printing too much private credit card information on credit card receipts.

According to the federal Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), businesses are not allowed to print more than the last five digits of a customer’s debit card or credit card number on digitally printed receipts. Additionally, the expiration date of the credit card or debit card is not allowed to appear on the receipt.

Plaintiff Christopher Legg, who filed the FACTA class action lawsuit on behalf of himself and the potential class of Spirit customers in a similar situation, alleged that Spirit had provided him a receipt that included the first seven digits and the last four digits of his credit card number.

While Spirit denied the allegations, they entered into a settlement to avoid the cost and risk of going to trial. Each eligible Class Member should receive approximately $265 as a result of the proposed settlement.

The FACTA Class Action Lawsuit Legg v. Spirit Airlines is Case No. 0:14-CV-61978, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

FACTA Lawsuit Information

If you received a digitally printed receipt from a business that included your credit card or debit card’s expiration date or any more than the last five digits of your credit card or debit card number, you may be eligible for legal compensation under FACTA. A FACTA attorney can assist you by reviewing your case and advising you on your legal options in a free consultation.

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