[PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

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No. 21-13879 ____________________

GARY WALTERS, Plaintiff-Appellant, versus FAST AC, LLC, Florida limited liability company, FTL CAPITAL PARTNERS, LLC, foreign limited liability company, d.b.a. FTL Capital Finance,

Defendants-Appellees.

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2 Opinion of the Court 21-13879

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 2:19-cv-00070-JLB-MRM ____________________

Before LAGOA, BRASHER, and ED CARNES, Circuit Judges. BRASHER, Circuit Judge: This appeal is about Article III standing. Gary Walters agreed to purchase air conditioning repairs he could not afford from Fast AC, LLC, by taking out a loan with FTL Capital Partners, LLC. He did so after a Fast AC employee lied about the price of FTL’s loan and prevented Walters from viewing FTL’s loan paper- work. The Truth in Lending Act (“TILA”), 15 U.S.C. § 1601 et seq., requires a lender like FTL to provide certain disclosures about the cost of the loan. Walters sued FTL, claiming that it violated TILA because it did not provide him those disclosures. According to Wal- ters, had he received the proper disclosures, he would not have ac- cepted the loan. The only question on appeal is whether Walters has stand- ing to bring this TILA claim against FTL. According to FTL, Wal- ters’s injuries are not traceable to FTL’s disclosure paperwork be- cause Fast AC never showed Walters any paperwork. We agree that, if Fast AC’s conduct was independent of FTL, then Walters’s injuries are not traceable to FTL. But Walters argues that Fast AC is not independent of FTL because Fast AC was acting as FTL’s agent. Under this agency theory of liability, Walters argues that USCA11 Case: 21-13879 Document: 50-1 Date Filed: 02/06/2023 Page: 3 of 18

21-13879 Opinion of the Court 3

FTL is liable under TILA for Fast AC’s failure to provide the re- quired disclosures. Because we conclude that Walters has standing to raise this agency-based TILA claim against FTL, we reverse. I.

TILA imposes “mandatory disclosure requirements on those who extend credit to consumers in the American market.” Mourning v. Fam. Publ’ns. Serv., Inc., 411 U.S. 356, 363 (1973). The specific disclosures TILA requires vary depending on whether the credit provided is “closed-end” or “open-end.” The details of the two credit types and their respective disclosure obligations are un- important here. Suffice it to say that TILA requires lenders extend- ing closed-end credit (but not those extending open-end credit) to disclose, among other things, the number of monthly payments, the cost of those payments, and the total loan amount. See 15 U.S.C. § 1638(a); 12 C.F.R. § 1026.18. FTL Capital Partners, LLC finances home-improvement loans for heating and air conditioning products. FTL partners with contractors who provide those products to