There is no standard settlement amount for a wrong background check. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) sets a dollar range for one kind of damages, $100 to $1,000, and leaves the rest to the facts: what the error cost you and how the screening company handled it. The figures below come from one class action and three government cases, all filed in court or announced by a federal agency. They show what has been paid, and they also show why a total in the millions says little about one person’s claim.
What the FCRA lets you recover
- Willful violation. Your actual damages, or statutory damages of not less than $100 and not more than $1,000, plus punitive damages as the court may allow, plus court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees.
- Negligent violation. Your actual damages, plus court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees. There is no statutory minimum.
Actual damages are the losses the violation caused you. In a background check case, that starts with the job or the apartment the report cost you. The other dollar figures and deadlines the statute sets are collected on my background checks by the numbers page, and the time limit for filing is explained in the FCRA statute of limitations.
Four public settlements, and what each one paid
1. The TransUnion Rental Screening Solutions class action: an $11.5 million fund, with payments of about $84 to $841 per person. In In re TransUnion Rental Screening Solutions, Inc. FCRA Litigation, renters alleged that tenant screening reports attributed criminal records to the wrong people and reported eviction cases without their later dismissals and other favorable outcomes. The settlement created an $11.5 million fund for more than 52,000 people, and the federal court in Atlanta granted final approval on October 3, 2023. In their motion for final approval, the lawyers for the class told the court what each group would receive after fees and costs: about $841 for the groups involving felony and sex-offense records and criminal-record disputes, about $168 for the groups involving lesser offenses and eviction-record disputes, and about $84 for the remaining eviction-record group.
2. The FTC and CFPB case against the same company: $15 million. In October 2023 the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced a settlement, filed as a proposed court order, requiring TransUnion Rental Screening Solutions and its parent, Trans Union LLC, to pay $11 million to compensate consumers and a $4 million civil penalty. The agencies alleged that the company’s tenant screening reports included inaccurate and incomplete eviction records.
3. The government’s case against HireRight Solutions: $2.6 million. In 2012 the Justice Department, acting for the FTC, filed a complaint and a proposed consent decree under which HireRight Solutions agreed to pay a $2.6 million civil penalty. The complaint alleged that the company failed to follow the FCRA’s accuracy rules for employment background reports, including by reporting records that had been expunged and by listing the same offense more than once. The penalty was payable to the United States, not to the people named in the reports.
4. The FTC’s case against RealPage: $3 million. In 2018 RealPage agreed to pay $3 million to settle FTC charges that it used broad name-matching criteria that tied rental applicants to criminal records belonging to other people. RealPage reported the $3 million payment in its own securities filings, where it also stated its belief that its practices did not violate the FCRA.
What these numbers do and do not tell you
- A class payment is a share of one fund. In the class action above, four of the five groups were paid automatically and the fifth had to return a claim form. Nobody had to prove what the report cost them, so a payment reflects the group a person fell into, not that person’s losses.
- A class settlement does not always end an individual claim. The same settlement had a second, wider class that received changes to the company’s procedures rather than payments. According to the motion for final approval, members of that class kept the right to bring their own claims for actual, statutory and punitive damages.
- A civil penalty goes to the government. Two of the four cases above, HireRight and RealPage, were civil penalties with no payment to consumers.
- An individual claim turns on its own facts. The statute ties the money to what the error cost you and to whether the violation was willful or negligent. What you lost, whether you disputed the report, and what the company did after your dispute are the facts that decide it.
None of these figures predicts the outcome of any other case. Every case depends on its own facts, and no result is guaranteed.
If your background check was wrong
Get a copy of the report and dispute the error in writing; how to dispute a background check walks through it. If the report shows a record that belongs to another person, see someone else’s record on your background check. Keep the report, the employer’s or landlord’s notice, and anything showing the date you lost the job or the apartment.
If a background check or tenant screening report was wrong about you and it cost you a job or a home, I review the report at no cost and tell you whether there is a claim. You pay nothing unless we win. My page on suing a background check company explains how these cases work, and you can contact us to send what you have.
Admitted in Pennsylvania and New Jersey; available to appear pro hac vice in other federal courts.
Common questions
Is there an average settlement for a wrong background check?
The statute sets no standard amount, and I am not aware of a reliable public average. The public amounts described above come from a class action and government cases, and they vary with the size of the group and the kind of error. In the class action described above, payments ran from about $84 to about $841 per person.
What is the most the FCRA allows for a background check error?
The statute sets no cap on actual damages. For a willful violation it allows actual damages or statutory damages of $100 to $1,000, plus punitive damages as the court may allow, plus costs and reasonable attorney’s fees. For a negligent violation it allows actual damages plus costs and reasonable attorney’s fees.
If a government agency already fined the company, can I still bring my own claim?
In the two penalty cases above, the money went to the government. Whether you still have a claim of your own depends on your facts, on any class settlement that covers you and what it released, and on the FCRA’s time limit.
Do I have to pay to find out whether I have a case?
No. I review the report at no cost, and you pay nothing unless we win.
Sources: 15 U.S.C. §§ 1681e(b), 1681n, 1681o and 1681p; In re TransUnion Rental Screening Solutions, Inc. FCRA Litigation, No. 1:20-md-02933 (N.D. Ga.), plaintiffs’ motion for final settlement approval (Sept. 7, 2023) and order granting final approval (Oct. 3, 2023); Federal Trade Commission, press release on the TransUnion Rental Screening Solutions settlement (Oct. 12, 2023); Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, CFPB and FTC Take Actions Against TransUnion for Illegal Rental Background Check and Credit Reporting Practices (Oct. 12, 2023); U.S. Department of Justice, Employment Screening Services Provider Settles Charges of Violating Fair Credit Reporting Act (Aug. 2012); Federal Trade Commission, press release on United States v. HireRight Solutions, Inc. (Aug. 2012); Federal Trade Commission, press release on the RealPage, Inc. settlement (Oct. 16, 2018); RealPage, Inc., Form 8-K (Oct. 16, 2018) and Form 10-K for fiscal year 2018.
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