Credit Reporting Agency Files Antitrust Class Action Against Experian and CoreLogic for Collusion

WASHINGTON, July 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Experian, the national consumer credit data repository, and CoreLogic, Inc., the nation's largest credit report reseller, were named in a suit filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida for alleged violations of the antitrust laws.

The suit, filed by a Florida-based mortgage credit reporting agency, claims that Experian and CoreLogic sought to deny smaller credit agencies access to Experian's mortgage credit information for "tri-merged" mortgage credit reports. Banks and investors require tri-merged reports to extend credit for home mortgages. The complaint seeks damages and injunctive relief.

According to the suit, Experian and CoreLogic were partners in the Credco mortgage credit reporting business in early 2008 when Experian "agreed to eliminate up to 87% of CoreLogic's rivals" is exchange for CoreLogic's help to "maintain Experian's monopoly in mortgage credit information ..." The suit claims that the number of qualified mortgage credit reporting agencies has declined nationwide from over 1,500 at the beginning of the century to fewer than 100 today.

Jonathan Rubin of Washington, D.C.-based Rubin PLLC who represents the plaintiff said, "Independent credit reporting agencies like my client can no longer compete, not because they are not efficient, but because Experian and CoreLogic conspired to drive them out of the market. This is an astonishing violation of the antitrust laws."

The plaintiff, Credit Bureau Services, Inc. of Oakland Park, Florida, has also asked the court to certify the case as a class action on behalf of "all mortgage credit report resellers separated from Experian" as a result of the violation.

The case is Credit Bureau Services, Inc. v. Experian Information Solutions, Inc., et al., No. 12-cv-61360 (S.D.Fla., filed July 10, 2012).

About Rubin PLLC

Rubin PLLC is a Washington, D.C.-based antitrust and competition law firm founded in January 2011. With a trusted network of corresponding affiliates, Rubin PLLC serves consumers and businesses in all aspects of U.S. competition law and policy. Learn more at www.RubinPLLC.com.

SOURCE Rubin PLLC