In the early 1990s, Experian and Equifax, two of the nation's three largest credit reporting agencies, stopped selling sensitive credit information it gathers to catalog companies, banks and other purveyors of junk mail.

Now, in a case that began some eight years ago, the Federal Trade Commission has ordered Trans Union, the other member of the big three national credit bureaus, to do the same.

In a unanimous decision, the consumer watchdog agency determined that the Chicago-based credit agency was illegally selling target marketing under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which protects the privacy of credit information by limiting the circumstances under which information can be disclosed.

For example, the law allows consumer reporting agencies to furnish reports in cases where the consumer has authorized the disclosure or for the extension of credit, employment or insurance.

Trans Union currently handles data on some 160 million people. It receives detailed credit information from numerous local grantors of credit, including banks, mortgage companies, credit unions, auto dealers and others. It then compiles this information into reports and sells them to other creditors nationwide.

But it also compiles the data it has collected into lists of specific categories, and sells the names and address of people on those lists to target marketers, who then solicit the persons listed to purchase goods and services.

The case has been hanging around since 1992, when the FTC first issued an administrative complaint. The charge was upheld by an administrative law judge a year later, and the agency affirm that ruling in 1993. But an appeals court remanded the case to the commission for further findings.

After a full trial, another administrative law judge held that the FTC provided sufficient evidence of the charge. But Trans Union appealed the ruling to the commission.

Now the FTC, in an opinion written by Commissioner Mozelle Thompson, has held that much of the information disclosed by the company in its lists, including the fact that a consumer has a credit relationship with a creditor, "is the type of information used and/or expected to be used in whole or in part for the purpose of serving as a factor in establishing a consumer's eligibility for credit."

The agency also found that although some demographic information the company disclosed did not meet the definition of a consumer report, the age information that also was revealed did bear on the consumer's credit capacity and therefore does constitute a consumer report.

Trans Union said it will appeal the decision.

Published: March 9, 2000

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

When Lew Sichelman first started writing about housing in 1969, he was the youngest real estate writer in the country. Now, 37 years later, he's one of the oldest -- and most decorated. He has been rated the top housing columnist in the country by the National Association of Realtors as well as by his peers in the National Association of Real Estate Editors. Indeed, NAREE has recognized his work on numerous occasions. One year - due to his advancing age, he can't recall which one - he earned top honors in the annual NAREE Journalism Contest in three out of the four major writing categories. It was the first time one writer has won so many NAREE awards in a single year. Known for his ability to make even the most difficult topics understandable, Sichelman also has been honored by the National Association of Home Builders and the Mortgage Bankers Association. He began providing in-depth coverage of and consumer-oriented information about housing and housing finance at the Washington Daily News, where he was real estate editor. He held that same position for nine more years at the Washington Star, which purchased the News in 1972. The Star, a so-called "writer's newspaper" which also had the misfortune of being an evening paper, was put out of its misery in 1981, and Sichelman, who had begun self-syndicating his column in 1978, decided to become a full-time columnist. Today, his column, "The Housing Scene," is distributed by United Media to newspapers throughout the country. He also is on the staff of National Mortgage News, an independent newspaper which is considered the bible of the mortgage business. And he writes for numerous other publications, including MarketWatch.com, where he answers readers questions once a week, Sports Illustrated (don't ask), RealtyTimes.com, BigBuilder and others. Sichelman is married, the father of five and grandfather of eleven.