Napleton Enterprises, Auto Dealerships Hit with Class Action Over Allegedly Unauthorized Credit Report Inquiries

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An Illinois consumer claims in a proposed class action lawsuit that automotive retailer Napleton Enterprises, LLC and two subsidiaries unlawfully obtained his credit report without his permission or a valid reason.

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The 13-page privacy lawsuit alleges that the company and co-defendants Ed Napleton Automotive Group and Napleton’s Arlington Heights Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram have run afoul of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by procuring consumer reports under the pretense that a customer has applied for a loan or credit to finance the purchase of a vehicle.

The class action suit was filed by a man who says he visited Napleton’s Arlington Heights Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Arlington Heights, Illinois, earlier this year to consider buying a vehicle. While at the dealership, the plaintiff explicitly refused any financing options offered by the representative and at no time filled out or submitted a credit application, the case shares.

Nevertheless, the consumer claims he learned days later that the defendants had procured his credit reports without authorization.

Because the plaintiff had neither applied for credit nor given his consent for the dealership to access his consumer report, the defendants had no legitimate business need for the information, the complaint contends. As such, the companies’ conduct has violated the FCRA, which strictly prohibits entities from obtaining an individual’s credit report without a permissible purpose, the filing charges.

The plaintiff’s experience is hardly unique, the suit asserts, alleging that consumer reviews posted online routinely reference the defendants’ long-standing practice of obtaining credit reports without authorization.

The Napleton Enterprises lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the United States or its territories about whom the defendants or any subsidiaries obtained a consumer report within the past five years and from whom the companies’ records contain no written authorization or credit application dated within three calendar days of the date on which the report was procured.

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