TransUnion entered into an agreement with the CFPB in 2017, agreeing to pay USD 13.9 million in restitution and USD 3 million in civil penalties, saying it would stop trying to sell customers credit monitoring subscription products and would provide a clear way for customers to cancel a subscription if they no longer wanted it.
Instead of taking actions to stop these practices, the CFPB alleged that TransUnion looked for ways to keep the subscription revenues flowing. This included keeping a vague ‘checkbox’ on the TransUnion website that signed customers up for products that they may not have wanted. This often happened when a customer used annualcreditreport.com, the federal government’s portal that gives Americans access to their credit report from each of the bureaus free once a year.
The CFPB says that roughly 18% of TransUnion’s annual revenue came from these services, which means it would have been a substantial hit to the Chicago company’s bottom line if it were to stop the programme entirely. In a prepared statement TransUnion called the CFPB’s lawsuit ‘meritless’ and said that the CFPB refused to meet with TransUnion to resolve this matter in the weeks and months leading up to the lawsuit.
Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.
Subscribe now