Who benefits from the federal law that allows the filing of class actions against retailers and others who print too much information on credit card receipts? In a St. Louis federal case called Albright v. Bi-State Development Agency, as described by Ted Frank here, it’s $742.50 at most to class members, $2,500 each to two class representatives, and $190,000 in attorneys’ fees and expenses, down from a request by the lawyers of $400,000. Is that pretty much as expected these days? Earlier on FACTA here, here, etc.
Posts Tagged ‘FACTA’
Small-bank CEO: I spend 50-60% of my time dealing with regulatory issues
Maryland Reporter on what an Eastern Shore banker told a forum arranged by the state’s tax authorities:
The CEO of Easton Bank and Trust, Mike Menzies, said the new standardized approach in how the banks count assets along with state regulation policies have a distinct impact on the loans they can lend to small businesses….
Menzies said that regulations associated with the federal Credit Card Card Act, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act and Dodd-Frank Act have have placed large burdens on banks, forcing them to devote more human resources toward regulatory compliance than is necessary.
“I would say that seven years ago, I would spend 20 to 25% of my time as CEO of a small company dealing with regulatory issues,” said Menzies. “I spend no less than 50 or 60 percent of my time today dealing with regulatory issues. It’s unbelievable.”
March 19 roundup
- Plaintiff in case alleging defective clown shoes “does not want any additional publicity” [N.Y. Post via Lowering the Bar]
- Santa Fe’s anti-wireless activists [The New Mexican, earlier]
- Law vs. vaccines, cont’d: “Judge Declines to Upset $22.5 Million Jury Award in Polio Case” [NYLJ]
- Arizona high court launches probe of Maricopa County prosecutor Andrew Thomas [Coyote, earlier]
- “Innumerable histronics” but no conspiracy: litigation over 1996 Filegate scandal fizzles out [Althouse]
- More boosts in regulators’ budgets [Roger Clegg, NRO, OFCCP employment regulation at federal contractors; Koehler, FCPA Professor] Obama’s putting in regulatory hardliners at many agencies; a clue to his politics? [Bainbridge, Judis/TNR]
- If only they’d confine themselves to suing the actual bad actors in FACTA (credit-card-slip) and junk-fax litigation [Bart T. Murphy, Chicago Business Ledger; my ’06 take]
- So may bullies ever fare: sanctions set against company that sued BoingBoing for libel [“MagicJack” case and more]
Welcome Orlando Sentinel readers
I’m quoted in Sandra Pedicini’s report on the settlement (with $9 appetizer vouchers) of a lawsuit charging the Olive Garden restaurant chain with “printing the last six digits of customers’ credit-card numbers on receipts. The limit under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act is five.” Under FACTA, lawyers need not show that class members suffered actual damages from the violation; instead, they can claim statutorily prescribed damages, multiplied by the (usually large) number of customers involved. In most such cases, there are no reports of any identity theft because of the breaches: “It’s like reckless driving in which no one had an accident and except for the lawyers, no one even noticed the car speeding,” I’m quoted as saying. [“Olive Garden diners may be eligible for $9 voucher”, May 19]
Grimes v. Raves Motion Pictures FACTA decision reversed
Last year, Overlawyered was the first to report that Judge William Acker in the Northern District of Alabama had held the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), which provides unlimited damages of $100-$1000 per violation for trivial technical violations of printing too many numbers on a credit card receipt, unconstitutional. Other judges have refused to follow his lead, and last week the Eleventh Circuit reversed the decision, rejecting the facial challenge to the statute, but leaving open the possibility that the statute would be unconstitutional as applied in a particular case. (Harris v. Mexican Specialty Foods, No. 08-13510; h/t R.M.)
October 15 roundup
- Litigants’ “not about the money” assertions: Mark Obbie has further thoughts on reporters’ uncritical deployment of this cliche, and kind words for our archive of posts on the subject [LawBeat]
- Lawyer on the other side of that much-circulated “I’m sorry” deposition-dispute letter has his say [Markland and Hanley via Turkewitz and Above the Law]
- Local authority in England tells gardener to remove barbed wire from wall surrounding his allotment, thieves might get hurt on it and sue [Never Yet Melted, Steyn/NRO Corner]
- Same-sex marriage in Connecticut through judicial fiat? Jonathan Rauch says no thanks [IGF]
- Lawyers are back suing despite reform of FACTA, the credit-card-receipt “gotcha” law, but insurance might just dry up [Randy Maniloff at Point of Law]
- “Racing to the trough” — auto lenders latest to ask bailout though original TARP rationale of liquidity fix seems remote [Naked Capitalism]
- “To be a green-certified property (pretty important in crunchy Portland) there must be an absolute prohibition on smoking, including outdoor spaces.” [Katherine Mangu-Ward, Reason “Hit and Run”]
- (Failed) claim in trademark case: “the term ‘electric’ is not commonly used by the general public to describe a source of power for watches” [TTAB via Ron Coleman]
The exception to “all publicity is good publicity”
This “Ted Franklin” fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who spoke to the Birmingham News about the recent Judge Acker decision and FACTA amendments sounds like an interesting fellow who has thought about some of the same issues I have, even if he holds opinions diametrically opposed to mine about the need to cap damages in FACTA class actions.
Breaking and exclusive: FACTA held unconstitutional
We’ve previously written about the problems of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), which imposes astronomical statutory damages on vendors whose credit card receipts fail to comply with ambiguous technical requirements. Today’s Daily Business Review recounts the tale of a small-business owner whose restaurant was hit with one of these suits, and how Congress has unanimously passed legislation, over some trial-lawyer objections, to shut down previous suits, though the bill far from solves the litigation problem from popping up again, and trial lawyers vow to continue pressing the suits. “U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, who sponsored the Senate bill, said, ‘Congress never intended for the law to be used to drive companies out of business with expensive legal cases that don’t involve any harm to consumers.'”
Meanwhile, Judge William M. Acker, Jr., of the Northern District of Alabama, had a series of summary judgment motions in four FACTA cases before him. He rejected the idea that class certification was inherently improper when the resulting statutory damages would bankrupt the defendant (an issue I discussed in my Liability Outlook on the subject), but held that the $100-$1000 statutory damages, without a showing of harm, were necessarily punitive in nature, and thus constitutionally impermissible under State Farm v. Campbell: Read On…
FACTA receipts, restaurant coupons and “annihilating” damages
Entrepreneurial lawyers have launched a thriving industry of class actions demanding statutory damages of $100-$1000 per violation (times the number of customers) from businesses that continue printing too much credit card information on receipts despite a federal law requiring them to stop that practice, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA). Kings Family Restaurants, a Western Pennsylvania chain, has agreed to distribute coupons, as well as very non-couponic attorney’s fees, in one such case (WSJ law blog, Apr. 25). “Coffee Bean Tea & Leaf, a Los Angeles-based coffee-shop chain, agreed to give customers free drinks and pay customer lawyers $110,000.” On the other hand, judges have not always gone along with demands for class certification: “Costco, the largest U.S. warehouse-club chain, might have to pay as much as $17 billion without having harmed anyone, U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz said in January, refusing to certify a class action. That’s 15 times the Issaquah, Washington-based company’s 2007 profit.” (Cynthia Cotts, “Costco, Kinko’s Battle Trial Lawyers Over Credit-Card Receipts”, Bloomberg, Apr. 5). One tactic, used in suits against U-Haul and In-N-Out Burger, is to limit the scope of the class action to a few stores or locations, on the theory that a court that might not let a class action with “annihilating” damages go forward might yet approve one inflicting a nonfatal though large shark-bite. (Matthew Hirsch, “Plaintiffs Attorneys Think Globally, Act Locally in Financial Privacy Cases”, The Recorder, Aug. 27, 2007). Among the 300+ defendants in receipt suits is 1-800-FLOWERS, whose attorney David E. Block expresses outrage:
“In 22 years, I have never had a plaintiff sit across the table from me and say, ‘I have no damages. My identity hasn’t been stolen. I’m just bringing this lawsuit because I can,'” said Block of the Miami office of Jackson Lewis. “There’s something inherently wrong with a lawsuit where the plaintiff has no injury.”
(Tresa Baldas, “Landslide of Suits Over Data on Receipts”, National Law Journal, Apr. 7). “Receipts” needn’t actually be printed out in a shop or public place to trigger the act; those that flash on a customer’s home computer screen count too. (WSJ law blog, Apr. 8). Our earlier coverage: May 10 and Oct. 31, 2007, and Apr. 4 of this year.
FACTA: “I have no damages. I’m just bringing this lawsuit because I can.”
The National Law Journal gets around to discussing the problem of FACTA lawsuits in the April 7 issue; Overlawyered readers are well ahead of the curve. See also my Liability Outlook on the subject.