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

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No. 22-11187 ____________________

OMAR SANTOS, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, AMANDA CLEMENTS, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellants, versus HEALTHCARE REVENUE RECOVERY GROUP, LLC., d.b.a. ARS Account Resolution Services, USCA11 Case: 22-11187 Document: 51-1 Date Filed: 11/06/2023 Page: 2 of 24

2 Opinion of the Court 22-11187

Defendant,

EXPERIAN INFORMATION SOLUTIONS, INC.,

Defendant-Appellee.

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Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 1:19-cv-23084-KMW ____________________

Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, and LUCK and HULL, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Where a consumer reporting agency willfully fails to com- ply with the requirements imposed on it under the Fair Credit Re- porting Act, a consumer has two options to recover damages. The first option allows a consumer to recover “any actual damages sus- tained by the consumer as a result of the failure.” 15 U.S.C. § 1681n(a)(1)(A). And the second option allows a consumer to re- cover “damages of not less than $100 and not more than $1,000.” Id. The issue in this case is whether, under the second option, the consumer can recover “damages of not less than $100 and not more USCA11 Case: 22-11187 Document: 51-1 Date Filed: 11/06/2023 Page: 3 of 24

22-11187 Opinion of the Court 3

than $1,000” without proving actual damages caused by the con- sumer reporting agency’s willful violation of the Act. Joining every other circuit to address the same issue, we conclude that a con- sumer does not have to prove actual damages to recover statutory damages under the second option. Because the district court reached the opposite conclusion and denied class certification as a result, we vacate the district court’s class certification order and re- mand for further proceedings. I. Experian Information Solutions, Inc. is a “consumer report- ing agency,” meaning it receives consumers’ credit data from ap- proved furnishers and compiles that information into files summa- rizing consumers’ credit histories. Experian provides these sum- maries in the form of “reports,” known as “disclosures” when the reports are sent to the consumer directly, listing every credit and collection account a consumer has incurred. Each account on these reports is known as a “tradeline.” Healthcare Revenue Recovery Group, LLC is a debt collec- tion company that obtains accounts in default, known as collection accounts, from medical providers. In 2017, Healthcare Revenue began furnishing its collection account data to Experian, but Ex- perian misadjusted a technical setting that affected how it pro- cessed Healthcare Revenue’s data. That faulty setting caused all consumer reports featuring Healthcare