Congress passed The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (“FACTA” or the “Act”), and it was signed into law on December 4, 2003. FACTA became fully effective on December 4, 2006. The purpose of FACTA is to reduce the amount of personal confidential financial information that is generated and thereby reduce the incidence of identity theft, credit card fraud, and debit card fraud.To make sure of this, a section of the law mandates that stores and business owners get rid of all but the last four or five digits of the credit card number on the reciept, and not have any of the expiration date visible.
FACTA’s passing led to mass confusion, with some business owners effectively ignoring the act, despite much publicity of the law.Because there were so many lawsuits over FACTA’s “no printing of expiration date” clause, Congree decided to pass an act to protect merchants who didn’t follow that element of the law.
The Clarification Act actually came into effect in June of 2008. After June 3, 2008, a merchant that prints a credit card or debit card’s expiration date on an electronically generated receipt given to a customer is in violation of FACTA, even if the credit card or debit card number is properly truncated.
The Clarification Act ironically did not actually make any of the laws clear, but instead gave previously blatant violators of the FACTA a second chance to avoid lawsuit.The Clarification Act created a specified window between December 2004 and June 2008, in which violations of FACTA’s “no expiration date printings” law was effectively not enforced.
As a non-attorney banking consultant, my reading of the current requirements for what is now considered to be willful noncompliance with FACTA is:
- The printing on an electronically generated receipt of more than the last five digits of a credit card or debit card account number after December 4, 2006.
- The act of printing a receipt with the credit card or debit card’s date of expiration, after June of 2008.
As we get close to the six year mark of FACTA’s passing, there are unfathomable examples of merchants who still ignore the rules.It is essential that these store owners and merchants change their IT machines or reprogram them to get in line with FACTA’s regulations. If they fail to do this, it is my professional opinion that there will be another round of FACTA lawsuits aimed at achieving compliance with the requirements of FACTA and the Clarification Act.These lawsuits have already begun.
This Banking Expert Witness Consultant has worked on over 50 FACTA cases nationwide and is available to discuss FACTA matters with attorneys, through Consolidated Consultants Co.
