On November 6, a judge in the Southern District of New York dismissed a proposed class action alleging that Wolfgang's Steakhouse impermissibly printed payment card expiration dates on customers' receipts, relying on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Spokeo to find that customers were not actually harmed by any information revealed.

Relying on the Second Circuit's recent decision in Crupar-Weinmann v. Paris Baguette America, Inc., District Judge Katherine Polk Failla concluded that plaintiff Cynthia M. Fullwood could not prove that the steakhouse's disclosure of her credit card's expiration date on her receipt harmed her because Wolfgang's did not print Fullwood's full credit card number.  Without any injury, Fullwood did not have standing to seek statutory damages under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act.  The court rejected Fullwood's arguments that redacting credit cards' expiration dates was the "core object" of FACTA and also dismissed her contention that requiring her to show actual harm would "write FACTA out of the statute books."

Even though the court permitted Fullwood to amend three times previously, Judge Failla was convinced that further amendment would be futile.  "Plaintiff's amendments to her pleading are no match for the rising tide of binding precedent holding that a bare procedural violation of FACTA, without more, does not confer Article III standing," the judge wrote.  "Plaintiff never alleges that defendants made her receipts accessible to the public in any way, nor does she claim to have been the victim of identity theft or to have had her credit card used fraudulently."  Without any explanation as to how she could establish standing, the court denied Fullwood further leave to amend.

A copy of the court's opinion is available here.

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