Experian defeats putative class action in Second Circuit based on preemption of state law under the FCRA
Client(s) Experian Information Solutions, Inc.
Jones Day successfully defended Experian Information Solutions, Inc. in this putative class action against Experian and the other major national credit reporting agencies. The plaintiff, a home-mortgage lending broker, alleged that Experian violated various New York State common law duties by selling so-called "mortgage trigger" reports – which include the information that particular consumers were seeking mortgages – to potentially competing lenders. The United States District Court for the Western District of New York granted the defendants' motion to dismiss (on which Jones Day took the lead) on the ground that those state-law claims were pre-empted by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. 2008 WL 4507613 (W.D.N.Y. Sept. 30, 2008). On plaintiff's appeal to the Second Circuit, Jones Day took the lead in briefing and arguing on behalf of all defendants. The Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal in October 2009, in one of the first appellate decisions to discuss the scope of preemption of state law under the FCRA.
Premium Mortgage Corp. v. Equifax, Inc., 583 F.3d 103 (2d Cir. 2009)
