UBS Background Check Class Action Lawsuit Alleges FCRA Violations

UBS Financial Services Inc. has been hit with a class action lawsuit alleging the company fails to provide copies of background checks and includes illegal language in some of its consent forms in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

Kimberly Plasters filed the class action lawsuit after she was fired from UBS for failing a background check. According to the class action lawsuit, she began working for UBS as an independent contractor on Aug. 12, 2013. Later that month, UBS asked her to complete and return a standardized document that would authorize UBS to obtain a consumer background and credit history report. She complied with the company’s request.

A few weeks later, a representative from Carco Group Inc., the company that provided the consumer report, notified Plasters that she had failed the background check and would be removed from the UBS project immediately. Plasters subsequently contacted UBS seeking a copy of the consumer report, but she allegedly never received a response from the company. She also claims that she never received a written description of her rights, in violation of the FCRA.

The FCRA is a federal law that regulates the collection, maintenance and disclosure of consumer credit and background information reported by consumer reporting agencies. Under the FCRA, an employer must provide a consumer with a copy of the report and a written description of the consumers’ rights before taking any adverse action based on the contents of the report.

“Despite these clear, well-established and unambiguous requirements of the FCRA, UBS makes employment decisions based in whole or in part on applicants’ consumer reports without first providing a copy of the report to the applicant,” the class action lawsuit says. “Further, UBS violates FCRA section 1681b(b)(3) by failing to advise applicants of their FCRA rights before taking actual adverse action against them based on their consumer reports.”

In the class action lawsuit, Plasters argues that UBS’s practices “exact serious consequences on consumer job applicants and interstate commerce.” Because UBS does not provide them with a copy of the report, consumers are not able to determine whether information in their consumer report is accurate. Further, “by the time the consumer is made aware of the consumer report, it is too late to correct the contents of the report because it has already formed the basis of UBS’s decision whether to hire the applicant.”

Plasters filed the UBS background check lawsuit on behalf of herself and all individuals in the United States for whom UBS procured a consumer report for employment purposes, and who were subjected to an adverse employment action by UBS without being given a copy of their consumer report within the last two years. The class action lawsuit seeks class certification, statutory damages and punitive damages.

Plasters is represented by James A. Francis, John Soumilas and David A. Searles of Francis & Mailman PC.

The UBS Background Check Class Action Lawsuit is Kimberly Plasters, et al. v. UBS Financial Services Inc., Case No. 2:14-cv-01659, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.