Sunrun Class Action Says Unauthorized Credit Inquiries Violate FCRA

A class action lawsuit filed by a Nevada woman alleges the solar power company Sunrun has been accessing consumers’ credit reports without proper authorization.

Plaintiff Shatri Sion alleges that in October 2015 she pulled a copy of her credit report from Trans Union, one of the three major credit reporting agencies.

Sion says that upon review of this report, she discovered that defendant Sunrun Inc. accessed her credit report a few weeks before on October 3.

According to the company’s website, defendant Sunrun provides installation and servicing of residential solar power systems in 15 different states.

Sunrun offers customers several different ways to pay for their solar power systems, running the gamut from buying the system upfront, paying through a finance plan, or leasing the system on a temporary basis.

Sion now claims Sunrun’s access of her credit report does not fall within any of the permitted circumstances for access allowed by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, or FCRA.

Sunrun had no legitimate business need for the information in her credit report, Sion claims. She says she never consented to having Sunrun pull a copy of her report.

In fact, Sion says she had no preexisting business relationship with Sunrun and had never incurred any financial obligations with the company.

Sion further claims Sunrun’s alleged FCRA violations were made willfully because the company is aware of the act’s prohibitions on unauthorized access to consumer credit reports.

Under the FCRA, plaintiffs can be entitled to statutory damages between $100 and $1,000 for each willful violation of the act.

In addition to the alleged violation of her right to privacy, Sion also points out that Sunrun has increased her exposure to possible future fraud.

Any of her sensitive credit report information contained on Sunrun’s computer systems is now vulnerable to being exposed in a data breach, she says. Having her sensitive personal information on a computer system with little or no security could expose her to future credit fraud and identity theft.

Sion is proposing to represent a plaintiff Class consisting of all persons whose credit report from any of the three major reporting agencies shows an unauthorized inquiry made by Sunrun during the past five years. She expects Class Members will number in the hundreds and possibly more.

She is asking the court to certify the Class as proposed and to name her as Class representative and her attorneys as Class counsel. She seeks an award of actual and statutory damages and reimbursement of her attorneys’ fees and costs of litigation. She also seeks a court order barring Sunrun from making any future unauthorized credit report inquiries.

Sion is represented by Abbas Kazerounian of Kazerouni Law Group APC and Joshua B. Swigart and Sara F. Khosroabadi of Hyde & Swigart.

The Sunrun Unauthorized Credit Inquiry Class Action Lawsuit is Shatri Sion v. Sunrun Inc., Case No. 3:16-cv-05834, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.