A putative nationwide class action was recently filed under the Fair Credit Reporting Act against Dollar Tree Stores Inc. The lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Florida.
The complaint alleges that Dollar Tree failed to properly disclose in a separate document that it was going to obtain employees' consumer reports for hiring purposes and improperly included a waiver of liability in the notices it did provide, in violation of the FCRA.
Plaintiff alleges that the failure of Dollar Tree to use a "stand alone" disclosure form apprising applicants that it was going to obtain a consumer report "flies in the face of unambiguous case law and regulatory guidance from the FTC." The Complaint also alleges that because the disclosure forms failed to comply with FCRA requirements, Dollar Tree did not have proper authorization to obtain consumer reports on prospective employees.
The lawsuit seeks statutory and punitive damages for violations of the FCRA.
The suit is one of a number of such recently-filed lawsuits alleging that companies have violated this provision of the FCRA. For instance, as we previously reported, Whole Foods Market Group, Inc. also was recently hit with putative class actions for allegedly violating the FCRA. The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation also centralized similar suits against Michaels Stores Inc. in New Jersey in early April.
Troutman Sanders LLP has extensive experience in FCRA litigation and compliance with respect to challenged disclosure forms. This growing body of lawsuits challenging employer disclosure forms warrants careful review of such forms by companies. Troutman Sanders will continue to monitor this area of law.
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