Law / Canada / New Brunswick
Credit Reporting Services Act, consumer rights: adverse action notice, disclosure, correction and security alerts
S.N.B. 2017, c. 27, ss. 15, 17-20
In force since .
A data subject rights rule binding public and private bodies.
- Enforcement body
- Financial and Consumer Services Commission of New Brunswick
- Obligation class
- Data subject rights, Disclosure
As of .
What it requires
- These duties bind a credit reporting agency and an end-user, which is any person who receives or uses a credit report from a credit reporting agency, other than the consumer.
- If you are an end-user and the contents of a credit report play a role in denying a benefit, product or service, increasing its cost or making its terms less favourable to the consumer, give the consumer notice within 15 days after taking the action, in person or by mail to the consumer's last known address (s. 15 (1)-(2)).
- If you are a credit reporting agency, within a reasonable time after a consumer's written request disclose the nature and substance of all information you hold about the consumer, its sources, the end-users to whom you provided a credit report in the preceding year and the reports and particulars of those reports, free of charge once per calendar year (s. 17 (1), (5)).
- If a consumer disputes the accuracy or completeness of an item in the consumer's file, use your best endeavours within a reasonable time to confirm or complete it and correct, supplement or delete it in accordance with good practice, and include the consumer's statement of dispute in later credit reports that include the item, subject to the limits in section 19 (ss. 18 (1), 19 (1)).
- If a consumer asks for a security alert, include it in the consumer's file and give it to every end-user to whom you provide a credit report about the consumer; if you are an end-user that receives a report with a security alert, verify that the person involved in the transaction is the consumer before proceeding and record the steps taken (s. 20 (2), (12)-(13)).
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text, as of .
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Criminal exposure note
An individual convicted under section 45 (1) is liable to a fine of not more than $50,000 or to imprisonment for a term of not more than one year, or to both.
Penalty structure
Section 45 (1) of the Credit Reporting Services Act provides for a fine of not more than $50,000 for an individual and not more than $250,000 for a person other than an individual; section 48 (1) separately lets the Tribunal order an administrative penalty of not more than $25,000 for an individual and not more than $100,000 for any other person.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- CAD
- Fixed cap
- 250,000
What this law does
An end-user who relies on a credit report shall give notice to the consumer when the contents of the report play a role in the denial of a benefit, product or service, an increase in its cost, or a change of its terms to be less favourable to the consumer. The end-user shall give the notice within 15 days after taking the action, in person or by mail to the consumer's last known address.
A credit reporting agency shall, within a reasonable time after a consumer's written request, disclose the nature and substance of all information it holds about the consumer, the sources of credit information, the names of end-users to whom it provided a credit report in the preceding year, all written credit reports provided in that year and particulars of all oral credit reports provided in that year. A consumer is entitled to receive that information free of charge once per calendar year.
If a consumer disputes the accuracy or completeness of an item of information in his or her file, the credit reporting agency shall within a reasonable time use its best endeavours to confirm or complete the information and shall correct, supplement or delete it in accordance with good practice.
A consumer may provide a statement declaring that a dispute exists about the accuracy or completeness of an item in his or her file, and the credit reporting agency must include the statement in all subsequent credit reports that include the item, subject to the limits in the section. A consumer may request a credit reporting agency to include a security alert in his or her file.
If a consumer's file includes a security alert, the agency shall give the alert to every end-user to whom it provides a credit report about the consumer, and an end-user that receives a report with a security alert shall not proceed with a transaction without first taking reasonable steps to verify that the person involved is the consumer and recording the steps taken. The Act, with the exception of one paragraph of section 10, was proclaimed and came into force on .
A person who violates a provision of the Act listed in its Schedule A commits an offence and is liable on conviction, for each offence, to a fine of not more than $50,000 or to imprisonment for a term of not more than one year, or to both, if an individual, and to a fine of not more than $250,000 if a person other than an individual.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app makes high-risk automated decisions or provides financial services.