Risky Business: The Eleventh Circuit Applies Spokeo to Assess the Sufficiency of Risk for Article III Standing in Muransky v. Godiva Chocolatier, Inc.

On October 4, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit granted the appellants in Muransky v. Godiva Chocolatier, Inc. a rehearing en banc. As a result, the court vacated its original holding that violating the truncation requirement in the Fair and Accurate Transactions Act of 2003 results in a concrete injury for the purposes of standing. The requirement forbids merchants from printing more than the last five digits of a credit card number on a point-of-sale receipt. In its original decision, the Eleventh Circuit demonstrated an unwillingness to override congressional findings that merchants who fail to truncate card numbers expose cardholders to an unacceptable risk of identity theft. This Comment argues that the court’s original decision was consistent with FACTA’s legislative purpose and should be upheld on rehearing.