FCRA requires consumer reporting agencies to follow reasonable procedures to assure the accuracy of information in consumer reports. Robins sued Spokeo.com under this statute after discovering that it published a report with inaccurate information about him, including his marital status, age, employment, education and wealth. The report erroneously said Robins was married with children and that he was older, better educated, wealthier and more accomplished than he actually was. In an initial appeal, the Ninth Circuit found that Robins had adequately alleged standing to sue, but in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, 136 S. Ct. 1540 (2016), the Supreme Court vacated that ruling, noting that Article III standing requires an injury that is both particularized and concrete, and that the Ninth Circuit had addressed the former requirement but not the latter.
In deciding this week, for the second time, that Robins had standing, the Ninth Circuit explained that Congress enacted FCRA to protect the concrete interest of consumers in accurate credit reporting. This was not a mere procedural interest because inaccurate credit or consumer reports have real-world implications for consumers, particularly in obtaining employment. Although cautioning that it was not deciding whether every inaccuracy Robins alleged would necessarily constitute a concrete injury, the court held that the alleged inaccuracies in Spokeo’s report could harm Robins’s employment prospects because it is the type of information that may be important to employers.
At first glance, this decision may seem like a blow to defendants seeking to dismiss putative class actions for lack of standing, and to some extent, it is. At the same time, class action defendants should be encouraged by several takeaways. First, the Ninth Circuit’s analysis is a fact-based inquiry and the number and type of factual inaccuracies published by Spokeo were material to the decision and will not be replicated in all subsequent statutory violation cases. The Ninth Circuit did not provide broad guidance about whether and under what circumstances a single inaccuracy in a credit report, a certain type of inaccuracy or another combination of inaccuracies would be sufficient to constitute a concrete injury. The court made clear that de minimis violations may not confer standing, but other than holding that Robins’s alleged facts were enough to confer standing, it did not provide clear guidance on where the line falls between sufficient and insufficient injuries.
Second, Robins won the pleading battle, but in doing so, may have lost the class certification war, as it may prove impracticable to separate putative class members with standing from those without. The Ninth Circuit acknowledged that the Supreme Court’s opinion “requires some examination of the nature of the specific alleged reporting inaccuracies to ensure that they raise a real risk of harm to the concrete interests that FRCA protects.” The court also noted that “Robins will have to show that Spokeo did prepare a report that contained inaccurate information about him.” An individualized inquiry into whether inaccurate information was actually published about each putative class member, along with the type of inaccurate information reported about each class member, may reveal that individual issues predominate over classwide issues, thereby precluding class certification.
This week’s opinion also contributes to a split among the circuits in addressing Article III standing for statutory violations. Another petition for certiorari from Spokeo may be forthcoming, and it may ultimately take another opinion from the Supreme Court to set a clearer line between plaintiffs with standing and those whose alleged harm is insufficiently concrete and particularized to entitle them to seek judicial relief.
Sidley Austin LLPはクライアントおよびその他関係者へのサービスの一環として本情報を教育上の目的に限定して提供します。本情報をリーガルアドバイスとして解釈または依拠したり、弁護士・顧客間の関係を結ぶために使用することはできません。
弁護士広告 - ニューヨーク州弁護士会規則の遵守のための当法律事務所の本店所在地は、Sidley Austin LLP ニューヨーク:787 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10019 (+212 839 5300)、シカゴ:One South Dearborn, Chicago, IL 60603、(+312 853 7000)、ワシントン:1501 K Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005 (+202 736 8000)です。