U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires employers who conduct background checks to provide the applicant with a copy of his/her credit report before the employer takes any adverse action. Here the employer conducted a background check and obtained the applicant?s credit report. The employer disqualified the applicant for further consideration based on the report without providing the employee with a copy. In Spokeo Inc. v. Robins, 136 S. Ct. 1540 (2016), the U.S. Supreme Court held that a violation of a procedural right divorced from any concrete harm does not satisfy Article III. The district court held that this case involved a purely procedural right. The Ninth Circuit affirmed. Here, it would have made no difference to the employer?s decision had the employer given the applicant the report before the disqualification. The applicant still would have been disqualified based on the accurate parts of the credit report.
Dutta v. State Farm Auto. Ins. Co., 895 F.3d 1166 (9th?Cir. 7/13/2018) (Vitaliano (E.D.N.Y.), Paez, Ikuta)