Opinion ID: 844281
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The FCRA

Text: (4) Congress enacted FCRA in 1970 to ensure fair and accurate credit reporting, promote efficiency in the banking system, and protect consumer privacy. ( Safeco Ins. Co. of America v. Burr (2007) 551 U.S. 47, 52 [167 L.Ed.2d 1045, 127 S.Ct. 2201]; see also § 1681(a)(4) [the FCRA was designed to insure that consumer reporting agencies exercise their grave responsibilities with fairness, impartiality, and a respect for the consumer's right to privacy].) Specifically, the FCRA requires consumer reporting agencies to adopt procedures for ensuring that consumer credit information is collected, maintained, and dispensed in a manner which is fair and equitable to the consumer, with regard to the confidentiality, accuracy, relevancy, and proper utilization of such information. . . . (§ 1681(b); see also TRW Inc. v. Andrews (2001) 534 U.S. 19, 23 [151 L.Ed.2d 339, 122 S.Ct. 441].) As originally enacted, the FCRA contained a broad savings clause, confirming Congress had no intention of displacing state law except to the extent state law and the FCRA were in irreconcilable conflict. [4] As well, the FCRA at first focused solely on consumer reporting agencies and imposed no duties on furnishers, i.e., those that provide information to a consumer reporting agency. [5] (See Pulver v. Avco Financial Services (1986) 182 Cal.App.3d 622, 633 [227 Cal.Rptr. 491].) Consequently, consumers remained free to sue furnishers under state law, subject only to a provision limiting certain state law tort claims to instances where a defendant had acted maliciously or with the intent to injure. (§ 1681h(e).) [6] (5) The Consumer Credit Reporting Reform Act of 1996 (Pub.L. No. 104-208 (Sept. 30, 1996) 110 Stat. 3009-426; 1996 Reform Act) amended the FCRA in two ways significant to this case. For the first time, Congress imposed affirmative duties on furnishers. (§ 1681s-2; see Sen.Rep. No. 104-185, 1st Sess., p. 49 (1995) [discussing proposed new section and noting that [c]urrently, the FCRA contains no requirements applying to those entities which furnish information to consumer reporting agencies].) Additionally, it amended the savings clause by carving out from the general no-preemption rule a series of discrete areas in which federal law henceforth would govern to the exclusion of state law. (§ 1681t(b).) [7] One such area is at issue here: that covered by section 1681t(b)(1)(F), relating to the preemption of claims against furnishers.