Henderson v. The Source for Public Data, L.P., et al
Henderson v. The Source for Public Data, L.P., currently on appeal before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, addresses the intersection of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). Public Data is alleged by private plaintiffs to be a consumer reporting agency that uses the internet to obtain and then assemble public records into consumer background check reports for its customers. The district court held that the plaintiffs’ FCRA claims treat Public Data as a publisher and speaker of the public records obtained from third parties, and are therefore barred by Section 230 of the CDA. The Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission, and the North Carolina Department of Justice filed an amicus brief urging reversal and explaining that Section 230 immunity is not applicable because the FCRA claims at issue do not challenge third-party content of Public Data’s reports, but rather Public Data’s conduct in disseminating reports Public Data itself created without complying with the FCRA’s procedural requirements.