[United States Statutes at Large, Volume 122, 110th Congress, 2nd Session]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

121 STAT. 1565

Public Law 110-241
110th Congress

An Act


 
To amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to make technical corrections to
the definition of willful noncompliance with respect to violations
involving the printing of an expiration date on certain credit and debit
card receipts before the date of the enactment of this Act. [NOTE: June
3, 2008 -  [H.R. 4008]]

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, [NOTE: Credit and Debit
Card Receipt Clarification Act of 2007.]
SECTION 1. [NOTE: 15 USC 1601 note.] SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``Credit and Debit Card Receipt
Clarification Act of 2007''.
SEC. 2. [NOTE: 15 USC 1681n note.] FINDINGS; PURPOSE.

(a) Findings.--The Congress finds as follows:
(1) The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (commonly
referred to as ``FACTA'' ) was enacted into law in 2003 and 1 of
the purposes of such Act is to prevent criminals from obtaining
access to consumers' private financial and credit information in
order to reduce identity theft and credit card fraud.
(2) As part of that law, the Congress enacted a requirement,
through an amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, that no
person that accepts credit cards or debit cards for the
transaction of business shall print more than the last 5 digits
of the card number or the expiration date upon any receipt
provided to the card holder at the point of the sale or
transaction.
(3) Many merchants understood that this requirement would be
satisfied by truncating the account number down to the last 5
digits based in part on the language of the provision as well as
the publicity in the aftermath of the passage of the law.
(4) Almost immediately after the deadline for compliance
passed, hundreds of lawsuits were filed alleging that the
failure to remove the expiration date was a willful violation of
the Fair Credit Reporting Act even where the account number was
properly truncated.
(5) None of these lawsuits contained an allegation of harm
to any consumer's identity.
(6) Experts in the field agree that proper truncation of the
card number, by itself as required by the amendment made by the
Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, regardless of the
inclusion of the expiration date, prevents a potential fraudster
from perpetrating identity theft or credit card fraud.
(7) Despite repeatedly being denied class certification, the
continued appealing and filing of these lawsuits represents

[[Page 1566]]
121 STAT. 1566

a significant burden on the hundreds of companies that have been
sued and could well raise prices to consumers without
corresponding consumer protection benefit.

(b) Purpose.--The purpose of this Act is to ensure that consumers
suffering from any actual harm to their credit or identity are protected
while simultaneously limiting abusive lawsuits that do not protect
consumers but only result in increased cost to business and potentially
increased prices to consumers.
SEC. 3. CLARIFICATION OF WILLFUL NONCOMPLIANCE FOR ACTIONS BEFORE
THE DATE OF THE ENACTMENT OF THIS ACT.

(a) In General.--Section 616 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15
U.S.C. 1681n) is amended by adding at the end the following new
subsection:
``(d) Clarification of Willful Noncompliance.--For the purposes of
this section, any person who printed an expiration date on any receipt
provided to a consumer cardholder at a point of sale or transaction
between December 4, 2004, and the date of the enactment of this
subsection but otherwise complied with the requirements of section
605(g) for such receipt shall not be in willful noncompliance with
section 605(g) by reason of printing such expiration date on the
receipt.''.
(b) [NOTE: 15 USC 1681n note.] Scope of Application.--The
amendment made by subsection (a) shall apply to any action, other than
an action which has become final, that is brought for a violation of
605(g) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act to which such amendment applies
without regard to whether such action is brought before or after the
date of the enactment of this Act.

Approved June 3, 2008.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY--H.R. 4008:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Vol. 154 (2008):
May 13, considered and passed House.
May 20, considered and passed Senate.