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A federal court in Minneapolis this Friday denied a motion by credit bureaus Experian Inc., TransUnion LLC and VantageScore Solutions LLC to dismiss a trademark-infringement case brought by Fair Isaac & Co., setting the stage for a trial, reports Credit Union Journal, a CardLine sister publication. The suit involves the introduction last year of VantageScore by Experian, TransUnion and Equifax Inc. to compete with the FICO score as a 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. However, Mark Greene, CEO at Fair Isaac, now known as FICO, says the suit is about two things: fairness and consumer protection. "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 look-alike 'educational' scores not actually used by lenders to make lending decisions." In its suit, FICO claims advertising and other methods Experian, TransUnion and VantageScore use deliberately confuse consumers into purchasing other, little-used VantageScore credit scores under the false belief that they are FICO scores or that lenders use the scores they buy from these companies to make credit decisions. The court did not rule on the legality of VantageScore. However, it did note there may be a claim that VantageScore constitutes an illegal presence in the market but held that FICO's lack of injury precluded it from pursuing such a claim at this time.
