View this article online: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2014/06/16/332172.htm
Experian Plc, the largest of the three credit reporting companies in the U.S., was accused by Mississippi of failing to ensure that its consumer credit reports are accurate.
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood alleged in a complaint moved to federal court in Jackson on June 12 that the company has for “more than two decades engaged in an unyielding pattern and practice of violating federal and state law.”
Experian has mixed up the identities of consumers and has reported accounts as late or still owing when they were paid on time or fully settled, according to the complaint. The state also claims the company’s reports have wrongly included old accounts or accounts that were extinguished in bankruptcy.
The state seeks unspecified statutory and punitive damages as well as restitution and disgorgement for violating consumer protection and fair credit reporting laws. The case was first filed last month in state court.
“While Experian has cooperated fully with the attorney general regarding this matter, we feel this lawsuit is not based on facts and we intend to vigorously defend our company,” Gerry Tschopp, a company spokesman in Costa Mesa, California, said in an e-mailed statement. “To say we knowingly put errors on reports is false and unsupported by evidence, and clearly calculated to be sensational.”
The case is Mississippi v. Experian Information Solutions Inc., 14-cv-00243, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Mississippi (Jackson.)