MINNEAPOLIS – A federal court denied a motion by credit bureaus Experian, TransUnion and VantageScore to dismiss a trademark infringement case brought by Fair Isaac & Co., setting the stage for a trial between the competing consumer credit scores.
The suit revolves around the introduction of VantageScore, by the credit bureaus and aimed at replacing the FICO score as the key indicator for consumer creditworthiness. In response to the Fair Isaac claims, Experian, TransUnion and VantageScore claim FICO is violating federal antitrust laws by fighting their efforts to introduce their own consumer credit score.
Fair Isaac agreed last year to dismiss Equifax, the third owner of VantageScore, from the suit after the two signed a joint marketing agreement.
"This suit is about two things: fairness and consumer protection," said Mark Greene, CEO at Fair Isaac, now known as FICO. "At a time when consumers most need clarity regarding their creditworthiness, it’s imperative that they understand whether or not the credit scores they purchase are industry-standard FICO scores, or merely lookalike "educational" scores not actually used by lenders to make lending decisions."
In its suit, FICO claims that advertising and other methods used by Experian, TransUnion and VantageScore deliberately confuse consumers into purchasing other, little-used VantageScore credit scores under the false belief that they are FICO scores, or that the scores they buy from these companies are used by their lenders to make credit decisions.
The court did not rule on the legality of VantageScore, which will be litigated at a future date.
