Chamber Fights Wave of Lawsuits

 

Information printed on customer receipts is landing retailers in court for allegedly violating federal privacy laws, and the U.S. Chamber is fighting for legislation to close the loophole that has invited the lawsuits.

 

More than 300 class action lawsuits alleging willful violations of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) of 2003 have been filed nationwide against retailers, restaurants, and other businesses. The law restricts what businesses can print on a customer receipt-they can either choose to print no more than the last four digits of a customer's credit or debit card number or they can refrain altogether from printing the expiration date. However, businesses are being sued for not doing both by trial lawyers harboring a different interpretation of the law. "Businesses read the law as 'or,' and now it's being interpreted by plaintiffs' lawyers as 'and,'" says Stanley Zabar, owner of Zabar's, a gourmet food store in New York's Upper East Side that was sued for printing receipts with card expiration dates.

 

Plaintiffs are attempting to recover up to $1,000 in statutory damages per violation whether or not any consumer information was actually misused by anybody. "This could put us out of business and our 200 employees out of a job," says Zabar. "None of the customers are claiming damages. The only ones who benefit are class action attorneys."

 

The Chamber is supporting a bill to clarify the definition of "willful compliance" under the law by exempting the printing of expiration dates on receipts, provided that businesses take the other required steps to comply with the law.