Restaurant customers can sue when a restaurant willfully prints prohibited card details on the customer receipt and that violation caused concrete harm. FACTA, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, is the federal law behind that right.
A misprinted slip alone rarely wins damages in federal court today. This issue affects diners who pay by credit or debit card and receive an electronically printed receipt. The sections below explain what restaurants must omit, what willful means, and what steps protect a claim.
Table of Contents
- What must restaurants leave off the receipt?
- When is a violation willful?
- Why does concrete harm decide federal cases?
- What should diners save and how fast must they act?
What must restaurants leave off the receipt?
Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute summarizes the FACTA truncation rule as barring businesses from printing more than the last five digits of the card number on the receipt given to the cardholder. It also bars printing any part of the expiration date on that receipt.
The duty applies only to electronically printed customer copies. LegalClarity notes that handwritten receipts, imprinted copies, and the copy the merchant keeps fall outside that customer-copy duty.
When is a violation willful?
Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute states the FACTA penalty rule allows a restaurant customer to recover only for a willful violation. A winning claim yields actual damages or $100-$1,000 in statutory damages, plus possible punitive damages, attorney's fees, and costs.
Davis Wright Tremaine explains that willfulness under Safeco v. Burr includes both knowing violations and reckless disregard. That means conduct creating an unjustifiably high, obvious risk of breaking the law.
Why does concrete harm decide federal cases?
Seyfarth Shaw explains the Supreme Court standing ruling in TransUnion v. Ramirez as holding that only plaintiffs concretely harmed by a statutory violation have Article III standing to seek damages in federal court. That holding blocks no-harm FACTA damages classes.
Troutman Pepper Locke reported the same result in Meyers v. Nicolet Restaurant, where the Seventh Circuit dismissed a diner's class action over a receipt showing an untruncated expiration date. The court treated the claim as a bare statutory violation with no concrete injury. Troutman Pepper Locke notes that customers generally must now show identity theft, fraudulent charges, disclosure to others, or another real-world harm beyond the misprinted slip.
What should diners save and how fast must they act?
Keep the customer-copy receipt, not a photo of a merchant copy. Write down where and when you dined and when you noticed the extra digits or expiration date. Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute notes the FACTA filing deadline requires suit within two years of discovery and no later than five years after the violation.
- Save the customer-copy receipt in its original form
- Note the discovery date in writing
- Act fast so the two-year and five-year limits do not expire