Cortez v. Trans Union: Branded a Terrorist Match at a Car Dealership — and a $150,000 Lesson

The setup

Sandra Cortez went to buy a car. The dealership pulled her Trans Union report, and Trans Union's "OFAC Advisor" add-on flagged her name as a match to a Specially Designated National on the Treasury Department's terrorist and narcotics list — a different person, "Sandra Cortes Quintero," with a different birth date. Trans Union then stonewalled her disputes and even claimed the alert wasn't part of her file.

The holding

Cortez v. Trans Union LLC, 617 F.3d 688 (3d Cir. 2010). The Third Circuit held that OFAC data sold along with a credit report is part of the "consumer report," fully subject to the FCRA — accuracy procedures under § 1681e(b), file disclosure under § 1681g, and reinvestigation under § 1681i.

"Once Cortez disputed the accuracy of the information in Trans Union's credit report, Trans Union was obligated to reinvestigate that information. The car dealer's responsibilities under the USA PATRIOT Act are simply irrelevant to Trans Union's duty under the FCRA."

"Trans Union admits that it performed no reinvestigation to determine whether Cortez was the person named in OFAC's SDN List."

The money

The jury awarded $50,000 compensatory plus $750,000 punitive; the district court remitted punitives to $100,000, and the Third Circuit affirmed the full $150,000 total.

Why it matters

Cortez is the Third Circuit ancestor of the Supreme Court's later TransUnion v. Ramirez case and the reason bureaus can't treat bolt-on "screening products" as outside the FCRA. If any report about you carries a false OFAC, criminal, or watchlist flag, the full FCRA toolkit applies — in our circuit, with Cortez's damages benchmark behind it.

If a background or credit report has flagged you as someone you're not, start at our background-check attorney page or the FCRA attorney page for a free case review.