Class Action Alleges Trans Union Inaccurately Reported ‘Bogus’ Pink Energy Loans on Credit Reports

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A proposed class action alleges Trans Union has violated federal law by inaccurately including on consumer credit reports balances owed on “bogus” loans from now-defunct and -bankrupt solar power company Pink Energy.

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According to the 20-page case, the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires consumer reporting agencies such as Trans Union to use “reasonable procedures” to ensure the “maximum possible accuracy” of the information it reports about consumers.

Despite this requirement, Trans Union, the filing claims, has “blindly” allowed lending partners that work with Pink Energy—including Sunlight Financial LLC, Dividend Solar Finance LLC, GoodLeap, LLC and Solar Mosaic, Inc.—to report that consumers owe payments on scam loans for rooftop solar panel systems that were either “never installed, never properly installed, or [were] otherwise faulty, overpriced with a hidden fee.”

The lawsuit explains that since Pink Energy has faced multiple lawsuits over its allegedly deceptive sales practices, and subsequently filed for bankruptcy in October 2022, thousands of consumers have been stuck with tens of thousands of dollars in loans for faulty or nonexistent rooftop solar panel systems.

Per the suit, these consumers not only bought defective products but are also victims of a “connected scheme” between Pink Energy and its lending partners, all of which conspired to “inflate the loans, mislead consumers as to the actual ‘price’ (known by everyone but the consumer to be false) and to circumvent federal and state consumer lending protections.”

Upon discovering this scheme, nine state Attorneys General sent Pink Energy’s lending partners a November 2022 joint letter demanding that they suspend consumers’ loan payment obligations and “work with consumers who have been adversely affected by Pink’s bankruptcy and its alleged unlawful business practices,” the filing relays.

The plaintiffs claim that in April 2023, they submitted to Trans Union a dispute of their Solar Financial account, which indicated that they had a past due amount of $64,864 on their loan, along with a link to the Attorneys General joint letter.

However, Trans Union failed to conduct substantive investigations into the dispute and continued to report the same “adverse, outdated, and inaccurate” information on their credit reports, the case alleges.

“Despite the widely known and publicized statements [from] the aforementioned Attorneys General, Trans Union nonetheless chose to allow the Pink Energy Partners, such as Sunlight, to inaccurately report balances owed on these bogus loans which debts were not just disputed by consumers, but were backed by numerous state government officers,” the complaint reads.

The lawsuit claims that Trans Union, in further violation of the FCRA, neglected to take the “minimal measure” of including a notation that the plaintiffs’ account was under dispute.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the United States for whom Trans Union furnished a consumer report since January 1, 2023 and contained an account where the original creditor of the loan was one of the Pink Energy lending partners mentioned above.

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