Jury Finds CenturyLink, Inc. Unlawfully Pulled Credit Reports on Class of Consumers Who Had Not Submitted Any Order
On September 13, 2024, Russell S. Thompson, IV and Thompson Consumer Law Group secured a jury trial verdict on behalf of a class of consumers who, between November 14, 2012 and November 14, 2014, went to the CenturyLink website, completed Steps 1-4 of CenturyLink’s 5-Step website ordering process, and had their credit pulled despite not completing Step 5, not providing any payment information, and not ordering any services.
A jury found that CenturyLink pulled credit reports on the named Plaintiff and every member of the class, that CenturyLink did not have a “permissible purpose” or legal reason to obtain the credit reports, and that CenturyLink’s failure to comply with the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) was willful. In finding for the named Plaintiff and the class, the jury awarded each person $500 in statutory damages under the FCRA. Additionally, the jury awarded each person $2,000 in punitive damages.
This is believed to be the largest jury verdict in the history of the FCRA. The number of class members is estimated to be just over 56 thousand individuals, resulting in a jury award of over $140 million in damages.