As a public service, the staff of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has prepared the following complete text of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq. Although staff generally followed the format of the U.S. Code as published by the Government Printing Office, the format of this text does differ in minor ways from the Code (and from West's U.S. Code Annotated). For example, this version uses FCRA section numbers (§§ 601-625) in the headings. (The relevant U.S. Code citation is included with each section heading and each reference to the FCRA in the text.)
This version of the FCRA is complete as of July 1999. It includes the amendments to the FCRA set forth in the Consumer Credit Reporting Reform Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-208, the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 1997, Title II, Subtitle D, Chapter 1), Section 311 of the Intelligence Authorization for Fiscal Year 1998 (Public Law 105-107), and the Consumer Reporting Employment Clarification Act of 1998 (Public Law 105-347).
Table of Contents
§ 601 Short title
§ 602
Congressional findings and statement of purpose
§ 603
Definitions; rules of construction
§ 604
Permissible purposes of consumer reports
§ 605
Requirements relating to information contained in consumer reports
§ 606
Disclosure of investigative consumer reports
§ 607
Compliance procedures
§ 608
Disclosures to governmental agencies
§ 609
Disclosures to consumers
§ 610
Conditions and form of disclosure to consumers
§ 611
Procedure in case of disputed accuracy
§ 612
Charges for certain disclosures
§ 613
Public record information for employment purposes
§ 614
Restrictions on investigative consumer reports
§ 615
Requirements on users of consumer reports
§ 616
Civil liability for willful noncompliance
§ 617
Civil liability for negligent noncompliance
§ 618
Jurisdiction of courts; limitation of actions
§ 619
Obtaining information under false pretenses
§ 620
Unauthorized disclosures by officers or employees
§ 621
Administrative enforcement
§ 622
Information on overdue child support obligations
§ 623
Responsibilities of furnishers of information to consumer reporting agencies
§ 624
Relation to State laws
§ 625
Disclosures to FBI for counterintelligence purposes
