Experian, VW Credit Solutions Hit with Class Action Over Allegedly Inaccurate Credit Report Information

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

A proposed class action lawsuit claims that Experian Information Solutions, Inc. and VW Credit, Inc. have violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by failing to properly investigate and note on credit reports account information that has been disputed by consumers.

Credit reporting agencies (CRAs) like Experian are required by the FCRA to dutifully investigate disputed information and “clearly note” contested items on credit reports furnished after the company receives a statement of dispute, the lawsuit states. The complaint claims that Experian and co-defendant VW Credit are dually responsible for a fraudulent item on the plaintiff’s credit report, which the man alleges stemmed from the companies’ “failure to follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy.”

“Despite having furnished information from VW Credit Inc. and the dispute from the Plaintiff, Experian Information Solutions, Inc. has completely abdicated its obligations under federal and state law and has instead chosen to merely ‘parrot’ whatever its customer, VW Credit Inc. has chosen to say,” the lawsuit alleges.

According to the case, the plaintiff discovered on his credit report a fraudulent account that he brought to Experian and VW’s attention in August 2019. Experian allegedly began an investigation into the plaintiff’s claims yet failed to resolve the issue, which, according to the case, led the man to file a formal statement of dispute with the agency in September 2019.  

The lead plaintiff claims he again accessed his Experian file on October 10, 2019 and discovered that the allegedly fraudulent account was still listed and that no notification of his dispute had been made in the report. The lawsuit alleges Experian violated the FCRA by conducting an “essentially useless” investigation and/or reinvestigation into the supposedly fraudulent account and by “intentionally” failing to include or otherwise note the plaintiff’s statement of dispute on his consumer report.

With regard to VW Credit, the lawsuit similarly states that credit report furnishers are also required by the FCRA to “conduct detailed examinations of the documents underlying customer transactions.” According to the plaintiff, VW overstepped its subscriber agreements—and ran afoul of the FCRA—by failing to accurately update the man’s account. As the case tells it, VW would have realized the disputed account was fraudulent had it conducted a reasonable investigation into the plaintiff’s claims.

The lawsuit seeks to represent a putative class comprising all persons in New York who notified Experian and/or VW of a dispute of an account in their Experian credit files and whose dispute was not noted in subsequent reports within the last two years.