FCRA
By Gareth HoyleLast updated How we research
FCRA is the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the federal law regulating consumer reporting agencies and data used to decide eligibility for credit, insurance or jobs.
FCRA is the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the federal law that regulates consumer reports and the consumer reporting agencies that assemble them. Under 15 USC 1681a a consumer report is information bearing on a person's creditworthiness, character, reputation or personal characteristics used, or expected to be used, to decide eligibility for credit, insurance, employment or other listed purposes.
Can selling data make you a consumer reporting agency?
Selling data can make you a consumer reporting agency if you regularly assemble information on consumers to furnish reports for eligibility decisions. Data licensed to train a general model is not usually sold for that purpose, but a dataset sold to build a credit, tenant or hiring screening model raises the question. The CFPB proposed in December 2024 to treat some data brokers as consumer reporting agencies and withdrew the proposal on May 15, 2025.
Why does FCRA appear in data broker laws?
FCRA appears in data broker laws because California, Texas and Oregon exclude activity regulated by it from their data broker definitions. Ask any buyer whether it will use your data in eligibility decisions, and take advice if it will.