FICO lawsuit against credit report agencies moves forward

07.27.09
By Nicholas Storie

FICO has filed a lawsuit against two of the three major credit reporting agencies, Experian and TransUnion, regarding a rival credit score.

And today, FICO announced that a judge with the U.S. District Court in Minneapolis has cleared the way for the case to be brought to trial later this year.

According to the lawsuit, the competing credit score - VantageScore - infringes on FICO's trademark, misleads consumers in its advertising and represents unfair competition.

"This suit is about two things: fairness and consumer protection," commented Mark Greene, CEO of FICO.

For years, the company has raised concerns that consumers could confuse VantageScore with a FICO score. In October 2006, it filed the lawsuit claiming that TransUnion and Experian deliberately confuse consumers so that they purchase the little-used rival credit score.

"At a time when consumers most need clarity regarding their creditworthiness, it's imperative that they understand whether or not the credit scores they purchase are industry-standard FICO scores or merely lookalike 'educational' scores not actually used by lenders to make lending decisions," Greene said.

Although the court cleared the way for the case to proceed, it dismissed some other claims contained in the original suit - including antitrust, contract and certain false advertising claims.

FICO said that it still "believes strongly" in each of its claims and will pursue them through an appeal after the trial has concluded.

Previously, FICO had also sued Equifax - the third major credit reporting agency - but the two companies settled the lawsuit in 2008.

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FICO raised concerns that consumers could confuse a rival credit score with the industry-standard score.