The Zip Code Conundrum - Marketing vs. Fraud Protection

A recent decision by the California Supreme Court — ruling that zip codes are "personal identification information" for purposes of the California statute which bars merchants from requesting PII during a credit card transaction — has added confusion to the question of when merchants can request personal information from their customers at the point-of-sale.

In February, 2011, a decision from the Supreme Court of California in a case brought against Williams-Sonoma overturned a lower state court ruling by holding that California law prohibits a merchant from requesting a customer's zip code as a condition of the customer using a credit card to pay for goods from the merchant. California law, like the laws of about fourteen other states (and the District of Columbia), prohibits merchants at the point-of-sale from requesting, requiring and/or recording a consumer's personal identification information ("PII") as a condition of using a credit card to pay for goods or