Recently, several large retail chains have started offering customers the option to receive electronic receipts for in-store purchasers, as the New York Times reports. For instance, a cashier may ask a customer for his or her email address at check-out and then email the receipt to the customer. Paperless receipt programs offer retailers new and exciting marketing opportunities–for instance, adding a retail store purchaser’s email address to the company’s customer relationship management database, even if that customer never shops online. But with these new opportunities come potential liabilities from old laws that were not written with this new technology in mind.
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Florida Cases Remind Retailers that Printing Expiration Dates after Enactment of the Receipt Clarification Act Violates FACTA
The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (“FACTA”) amendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act prohibit, among other things, the printing of expiration dates on receipts presented to credit or debit card holders. Two recent cases from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Smith v. Zazzle.com…
Another Court Affirms Narrowed Interpretation of Song-Beverly Credit Card Act
On June 26, 2008, in Absher v. Autozone, Inc. et al. (2008), the California Court of Appeal in the Second Appellate District, confirmed that California’s Song-Beverly Credit Card Act of 1971, California Civil Code § 1747.08 (hereinafter, the “Act”) does not apply to a refund for the return of merchandise purchased by credit card.
Expiration Date Imminent for Many FACTA Class Actions
New amendments to the Fair and Accurate Transactions Act (“FACTA”) (itself an amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”)) bar consumers from alleging willful violation and seeking statutory damages based on the printing of credit card expiration dates on receipts where the account number is otherwise properly truncated in accordance with FACTA. This development means the end is near for scores of class action lawsuits filed last year.
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