The 9th Circuit issued a nice summary affirmation last week in a case in which CDIA filed an amicus brief. In Sustrik v. Equifax, the Court affirmed the district court’s dismissal of the Plaintiffs’ claims against Equifax based on an alleged failure to provide a notice of dispute results. In the case below, the Plaintiffs did not assert that the information at issue was inaccurate, just that they had not received the notice of the results of the investigation. Following precedent in Carvalho v. Equifax, 629 F.3d 876 (9th Cir. 2010), the 9th Circuit panel affirmed the dismissal of the claims that the FCRA’s dispute provision “require[s] that an actual inaccuracy exist for a plaintiff to state a claim.” There is no private cause of action for failing to provide a notice of results when the consumer report accurately reflects the status of the information contained in public records.
Eric J. Ellman is Senior Vice President for Public Policy and Legal Affairs at the Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA) in Washington, DC. He also served for eight months as Interim President and CEO of the Association. More