Amy Schmitz of Colorado has written Secret Consumer Scores and Segmentations: Separating Consumer 'Haves' from 'Have-Nots', Michigan State Law Review, p. 1411 (2014). Here is the abstract: “Big Data” is big business. Data brokers profit by tracking consumers’ information and behavior both on- and offline and using this collected data to assign consumers evaluative scores […]
Category Archives: Credit Reporting
Here. An excerpt: The reality is that credit-reporting firms have been required for decades to ensure the accuracy of consumers' files. They're not doing us a favor. They're just finally saying that they'll follow the law. "For years, the credit-reporting agencies have scoffed at the law," said Scott Maurer, a law professor at Santa Clara […]
Here. My favorite part: I've written a lot over the years about the need for government to step in when markets fail to protect consumers.* * * Nearly every time, I get angry push-back from tea-party types and libertarians who question any intervention – even against monopolists or near-monopolists. Among the rare exceptions: the nation's […]
by Jeff Sovern New York's Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, announced a settlement with the big three credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax, and Transunion, which is intended to improve credit report accuracy. According to Scheiderman's release: The agreement requires that the CRAs employ specially trained employees to review all supporting documentation submitted by consumers for all disputes […]
Here, in the Washington Post
by Jeff Sovern In our casebook, we quote a 1982 article that reports on a credit scoring system that took into account, in calculating the score, the first letter of the applicant's last name. Credit scoring has evolved since then but maybe history is repeating itself or at least rhyming. Today's Times includes an article, […]
by Deepak Gupta Perhaps betting that the third time's a charm, the Supreme Court this morning once again granted a petition over whether disparate-impact claims — based on seemingly neutral practices with discriminatory effects — are cognizable under the Fair Housing Act. The case, Texas Deparatment of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities […]
Elizabeth De Armond of Chicago-Kent has written Preventing Preemption: Finding Space for States to Regulate Consumers’ Credit Reports. Here is the abstract: The Great Recession awoke state legislators to the power of individuals’ credit reports to hinder economic opportunities. Many legislators would like to assuage the effects of bad historical events on the futures of […]
by Jeff Sovern Our casebook includes a problem raising the question of whether discrimination against same sex couples in the granting of credit violates ECOA (some states have statutes explicitly barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, see, e.g., N.Y. Exec. L. 296-a(1)(a), and a HUD rule bars discrimination on the basis of sexual […]