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CDIA, along with PBSA and NCRA, filed an amicus brief in August 2021, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in support of RealPage’s interlocutory appeal of the lower court’s class certification. RealPage noted in its brief that
the district court improperly certified an unprecedented nationwide class involving highly individualized questions under the [FCRA] about the reasonableness of procedures used to gather housing-court records from thousands of different court systems across the country. Each of these court systems has its own policies and procedures for maintaining and accessing records. In stretching to certify a class, the district court’s order violates basic standards of due process, ascertainability, and predominance, and transforms the Act into a strict-liability statute.
In August 2022, the Court held (3-0) that informational injury can be concrete and that certain FCRA disclosure obligations can be triggered by a general request from a consumer. The Court remanded the case back to the District Court for further consideration of potential class certification.
We filed a brief because this case illustrates the threat posed by “no injury” FCRA class actions. Plaintiffs brought suit on behalf of themselves and a putative class of consumers, alleging that RealPage violated the FCRA by not disclosing the “source” of the public records included in their consumer “file,” as required by 15 U.S.C. § 1681g(a)(2). We told the Court that this claim depends on Plaintiffs’ novel interpretation of “source.” RealPage disclosed the actual repository of the public records in the Plaintiffs’ files.
We noted in our brief that (1) The Plaintiffs lack Article III standing because they suffered no concrete harm; and (2) The District Court correctly held that class certification is inappropriate because individual inquiries predominate over common ones.
In August 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania certified a class in litigation against RealPage that even though the issues asserted are not suitable for class treatment because the FCRA claim asserted depends on inherently individualized issues. On Sept. 21, 2020, the plaintiffs filed their opposition to RealPage’s petition to appeal class certification to the appellate court, which criticizes the CDIA, PBSA, and NCRA brief in a footnote.
The U.S. Chamber filed an amicus in the matter in August 2021.