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, Inc. (see our blog post here) and Smith v. Under Armour, Inc., reject prior holdings that the term “print” is broad enough to encompass the information included when a seller electronically transmits a receipt. These cases also make clear, as we stated in our June 18, 2008 post, that businesses printing expiration dates after the June 3, 2008 enactment of the Credit and Debit Card Receipt Clarification Act of 2007 (“Clarification Act”) are violating FACTA’s truncation requirements. In fact, the Zazzle.com case specifically mentions that the Clarification Act does not apply because the conduct complained of occurred after the Act’s enactment.
The Clarification Act, which shielded from a finding of willful noncompliance with FACTA any business that printed an expiration date on a cardholder receipt between December 4, 2004 and the enactment of the Clarification Act, did not completely eliminate the statutory requirement to not print expiration dates on cardholder receipts. Accordingly, businesses that print expiration dates on such receipts after June 3, 2008, even when card numbers are properly truncated, may incur liability under FACTA.
