Opinion ID: 4246971
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: bassett’s absence of injury

Text: We think our sister circuits are correct. History and congressional judgment “play important roles” in our analysis of whether an injury is concrete. See Van Patten v. Vertical Fitness Grp., LLC, 847 F.3d 1037, 1042–43 (9th Cir. 2017) (quoting Spokeo, 136 S. Ct. at 1549). Both factors counsel that Bassett did not allege a concrete injury.
We look to history because “the doctrine of standing derives from the case-or-controversy requirement, and because that requirement in turn is grounded in historical practice.” Spokeo, 136 S. Ct. at 1549. Bassett’s theory of injury is not supported by historical practice. Indeed, his claimed “exposure” to identity theft—caused by ABM’s printing of his credit card expiration date on a receipt that he alone viewed—does not have “a close relationship to a harm that has traditionally been regarded as providing a basis for a lawsuit in English or American courts.” Id. Bassett urges us to look to the “close” historical relationship between his alleged injury and privacy-based torts centered on wrongful disclosures of information. But even assuming that “unauthorized disclosures of 10 BASSETT V. ABM PARKING SERVICES information” are legally cognizable, ABM did not disclose Bassett’s information to anyone but Bassett. See In re Horizon Healthcare Servs. Inc. Data Breach Litig., 846 F.3d 625, 636 (3d Cir. 2017). Without disclosure of private information to a third party, it hardly matters that “[a]ctions to remedy . . . invasions of privacy, intrusion upon seclusion, and nuisance have long been heard by American courts, and the right of privacy is recognized by most states.” Van Patten, 847 F.3d at 1043. It is important to distinguish the alleged harm here from cases where we have recognized a privacy-based injury, such as Van Patten. There, we held that a consumer who received unsolicited text messages in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act alleged a sufficiently concrete injury because “unrestricted telemarketing can be an intrusive invasion of privacy and [is] a nuisance.” Id. (quoting Pub. L. 102-243, § 2, 105 Stat. 2394 (1991)). Bassett’s case is likewise dissimilar from Syed v. M-I, LLC, in which we determined that an employee sufficiently alleged a concrete injury where a prospective employer unlawfully obtained a consumer report about him without his consent, in violation of the employee’s “right to information” and “right to privacy” secured by the FCRA. 853 F.3d 492, 499–500 (9th Cir. 2017). Whereas an undisclosed receipt may not “cause harm or present any material risk of harm,” Spokeo, 136 S. Ct. at 1550, unconsented text messages and consumer reports divulged to one’s employer necessarily infringe privacy interests and present harm. Van Patten, 847 F.3d at 1043; Syed, 853 F.3d at 499.
In adopting the FCRA’s credit card expiration date requirement, Congress did not “elevat[e] to the status of BASSETT V. ABM PARKING SERVICES 11 legally cognizable injuries concrete, de facto injuries that were previously inadequate in law.” Lujan, 504 U.S. at 578. We look to Congress because “Congress is well positioned to identify intangible harms that meet minimum Article III requirements.” Spokeo, 136 S. Ct. at 1549. But Congress’s creation of a prohibition “does not mean that a plaintiff automatically satisfies the injury-in-fact requirement” just because “a statute grants [him] a statutory right and purports to authorize [him] to sue to vindicate that right.” Id. Bassett cannot, therefore, “allege a bare procedural violation, divorced from any concrete harm, and satisfy the injury-infact requirement of Article III.” Id. Spokeo laid to rest the notion that because the FCRA authorizes citizen suits and statutory damages, it must mean that allegations of a statutory violation meet the standing requirement. The statute does not eliminate this constitutional floor. As the Supreme Court emphasized, “Congress cannot erase Article III’s standing requirements by statutorily granting the right to sue to a plaintiff who would not otherwise have standing.” Id. at 1547–48 (quoting Raines v. Byrd, 521 U.S. 811, 820, n.3 (1997)). Spokeo rejected our conclusion that a FCRA plaintiff need only invoke a FCRA violation and seek statutory damages to allege a concrete injury. Id. at 1546, 1549. In doing so, the Court cast aside our prior dictum that “[a]llowing consumers to recover statutory damages furthers [the FCRA’s] purpose by deterring businesses from willfully making consumer financial data available, even where no actual harm results.” Bateman v. Am. Multi-Cinema, Inc., 623 F.3d 708, 718 (9th Cir. 2010) (emphasis added). Far from “elevating” expiration date violations, the Clarification Act suggests that alleged injuries like Bassett’s are not concrete. Bassett’s suit replicates those addressed in 12 BASSETT V. ABM PARKING SERVICES the statute: it “alleg[es] that the failure to remove the expiration date was a willful violation of the [FCRA] even where the account number was properly truncated,” and does not “contain[] an allegation of harm to any consumer’s identity.” 122 Stat. at 1565. Congress stressed that “proper truncation of the card number, by itself as required by the [FCRA], regardless of the inclusion of the expiration date, prevents a potential fraudster from perpetrating identity theft or credit card fraud.” Id. Distinguishing between “consumers suffering from any actual harm to their credit or identity” and those pursuing “abusive lawsuits,” Congress clarified that printing the expiration date on a receipt was not a willful violation of the FCRA during a temporary safeharbor period. Id. at 1566 (emphasis added). Of course, Congress did not eliminate the FCRA’s expiration date requirement in the Clarification Act. But both the Clarification Act’s finding that a disclosed expiration date by itself poses minimal risk and the law’s temporary elimination of liability for such violations counsel that Bassett did not allege a concrete injury. On balance, congressional judgment weighs against Bassett.