Article 7.

Credit Monitoring Services Act.

§ 75-133.  Title.

This Article shall be known and may be cited as the "Credit Monitoring Services Act." (2009-355, s. 7.)

§ 75-134.  Definitions.

The following definitions apply in this Article:

(1) Consumer. - An individual.

(2) Consumer report. - As defined in G.S. 75-61(3).

(3) Credit monitoring service. - Any person who offers, for a fee or compensation, to obtain, provide, or monitor a credit report on behalf of a consumer, or to assist a consumer in obtaining or monitoring the consumer's credit report, and provides or purports to provide the foregoing services. The term also includes any person who offers, for a fee or compensation, to obtain or provide a fraud alert on behalf of a consumer or to assist a consumer in obtaining such fraud alert. The term does not include the following activities of a consumer reporting agency, as defined in section 603(f) [15 U.S.C. § 1681a(f)] of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, provided that, while the excluded activities themselves do not fall within the definition of the term "credit monitoring service" none of these excluded activities exempts a consumer reporting agency from the duty to provide the notice required under G.S. 75-135 where the sale of a credit monitoring service occurs as a result of an offer for the credit monitoring service made at a time during communications involving such activities:

a. Providing a credit report to another party that monitors a credit report on behalf of a consumer;

b. Providing a disclosure to a consumer of the information in the consumer's file pursuant to section 609(a) [15 U.S.C. § 1681g(a)] of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act and also imposing a charge permitted under section 612(f) [15 U.S.C. § 1681j(f)] of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act;

c. Providing the disclosure of a score pursuant to section 609(f) [15 U.S.C. § 1681g(f)] of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act and also imposing a charge permitted under section 609(f)(8) [15 U.S.C. § 1681g(f)(8)] of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act;

d. Providing a notice required by G.S. 75-63(m); or

e. Providing a monitoring service to individuals who receive a notice provided by a person who experienced a security breach and where the monitoring service was paid for by the person who experienced the security breach.

(4) Fraud alert. - As defined in the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681c-1.

(5) Person. - Any individual, partnership, corporation, association, business establishment, or any other legal or commercial entity. (2009-355, s. 7.)

§ 75-135.  Required disclosure.

(a) Prior to charging or collecting any fee or compensation from a consumer for obtaining, providing, or monitoring the consumer's credit report on behalf of the consumer, a credit monitoring service shall provide a clear and conspicuous written description of a consumer's right to one free credit report per year pursuant to section 612(a) [15 U.S.C. § 1681j(a)] of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, and how to obtain those credit reports from each of the nationwide consumer reporting agencies, as defined in section 603(p) [15 U.S.C. § 1681a(p)] of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681, et seq.

(b) If the credit monitoring service is offered and fees are collected during a telephone call, the notice required by subsection (a) of this section will be offered in the same manner.

(c) A violation of this section is a violation of G.S. 75-1.1, except that compliance with the requirement that the notice required by this section be clear and conspicuous shall be enforced exclusively by the Attorney General under G.S. 75-15. (2009-355, s. 7.)

§ 75-136: Reserved for future codification purposes.

§ 75-137: Reserved for future codification purposes.

§ 75-138: Reserved for future codification purposes.

§ 75-139: Reserved for future codification purposes.