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CHICAGO — A Chicago federal judge has kicked back to Lake County Circuit Court a class action lawsuit brought by a couple who claimed theme park operator Six Flags printed too many of their credit card's digits on their receipts from a day at Six Flags Great America.
On May 24, U.S. District Judge Robert M. Dow Jr. remanded the lawsuit brought by Hugo and Sharon Soto, granting their request to send the matter back to state court.
The Sotos sued after they both used debit cards to pay for food at the Great America theme park in Gurnee. The Sotos took issue with the receipts they were given, alleging the receipts displayed the first eight and the last four digits of their debit card numbers. The plaintiffs said they threw away their receipts, making it even more likely that their information is not protected.
Daniel Edelman
The Sotos ultimately filed a class action lawsuit in Lake County court arguing that by displaying 12 numbers from their debit cards on the receipts, Six Flags violated the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Under the act, companies are not allowed to print more than the last four digits on a debit or credit card receipt.
Six Flags removed the case to federal court, prompting the plaintiffs' motion to have it returned to state court.
In his ruling, Judge Dow said he took into account the plaintiffs' standing before deciding whether to remand the case or toss it out completely. The judge said he disagreed with the defendant’s argument that remanding the case would be futile, and stated an Illinois court could rule that the alleged violation of FACTA is strong enough to stand in state court, even if the law wouldn’t hold the same weight in federal court.
“Because the court cannot say definitively what an Illinois state court would decide, remand rather than dismissal is appropriate,” the judge said.
The judge also said that even if the defendant was correct and the plaintiffs' argument was futile because of their failure to state a claim, the federal and state courts would probably both permit the complaint to be changed.
The judge denied the plaintiffs’ request for reimbursement of their attorneys’ fees.
The Sotos are represented by attorneys James O. Latturner, Francis Richard Greene, Daniel A. Edelman, Cathleen M. Combs and Michelle A. Alyea, of the firm of Edelman, Combs, Latturner & Goodwin LLC, of Chicago.
Six Flags is defended by attorneys Bevin M. Brennan, of Pedersen & Houpt P.C., of Chicago, and Spencer S. Persson, of Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP, of Los Angeles.