Congress approved FACTA on December 4, 2003, also known as the Fair & Accurate Credit Transactions Act. FACTA became fully effective on December 4, 2006. The purpose of FACTA is to reduce the amount of personal confidential financial information that is generated and thereby reduce the incidence of identity theft, credit card fraud, and debit card fraud.To make sure of this, a section of the law mandates that stores and business owners get rid of all but the last four or five digits of the credit card number on the reciept, and not have any of the expiration date visible.
FACTA’s passing led to mass confusion, with some business owners effectively ignoring the act, despite much publicity of the law.Due to the sheer volume of FACTA related lawsuits, Congress cleared an act to protect violators of the “no expiration date” rule in FACTA.
The Credit and Debit Card Receipt Clarification Act of 2007 (the “Clarification Act”) took effect on June 3, 2008.From June 2008 onwards, if a merchant prints a receipt with the expiration date on it, the business is in clear violation of FACTA.
The so-called Clarification Act was not really meant to “clarify” anything except that it gave past violators a pass for their failure to follow the requirements of FACTA.The Clarification Act created a specified window between December 2004 and June 2008, in which violations of FACTA’s “no expiration date printings” law was effectively not enforced.
As a non-attorney banking consultant, my reading of the current requirements for what is now considered to be willful noncompliance with FACTA is:
- The printing on an electronically generated receipt of more than the last five digits of a credit card or debit card account number after December 4, 2006.
- The act of printing a receipt with the credit card or debit card’s date of expiration, after June of 2008.
Even with the five years and six months of FACTA related discussion, there are somehow merchants that continue to violate the act.These business owners are obligated to take the simple and nominally priced steps to change their CC systems to maintain compliance with FACTA.If these merchants do not follow what is required you can expect another succession of lawsuits. I have already seen some of these lawsuits.
The author of this article is a Banking Expert Witness Consultant and has worked on over 50 FACTA cases nationwide. This Legal Banking Expert Witness can be reached for technical expert witness testimony through this Expert Witness Services Company. See all Legal Technical Expert Witness Specialties and view full C.V.’s of Legal Technical Expert Witnesses online. This is a free service.