App Developer Settles FCRA Charges Over Provision Of Criminal Background Reports

Richard Raysman is a Partner in our New York office

Earlier this year, an enterprise that sold criminal record reports via mobile apps agreed to settle FTC charges that it operated as a consumer reporting agency without taking consumer protection measures required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and otherwise committed deceptive acts and practices. In re Filiquarian Publishing, LLC, FTC File No. 112 3195 (settlement announced Jan. 10, 2013). According to the FTC, the app allowed consumers to access hundreds of thousands of criminal records and conduct searches on potential employees. Among other things, the agency claimed that the company failed to: maintain reasonable procedures to verify their users, confirm that the information would be used for a permissible purpose, ensure that the information sold was accurate and would be used legally, and inform users of their reports about their obligations under the FCRA, including the requirement to notify