Credit Agency Files Antitrust Suit Against CoreLogic, Experian

Florida-based ""CreditBureau Services"":http://www.creditbureauservicesinc.com/ filed a suit Tuesday against ""Experian"":http://www.experian.com/, the national consumer credit data repository, and ""CoreLogic, Inc."":http://www.corelogic.com/, the nation's largest credit report reseller, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida for alleged violations of the antitrust laws.

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The suit claims that Experian and CoreLogic sought to deny smaller credit agencies access to Experian's mortgage credit information for ""tri-merged"" mortgage credit reports. Banks and investors require tri-merged reports to extend credit for home mortgages.

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The complaint seeks damages and injunctive relief, according to a release by Rubin PLLC.

According to the suit, Experian and CoreLogic were partners in the Credco mortgage credit reporting business in early 2008 when Experian ""agreed to eliminate up to 87% of CoreLogic's rivals"" in exchange for CoreLogic's help to ""maintain Experian's monopoly in mortgage credit information.""

The suit claims that the number of qualified mortgage credit reporting agencies has declined nationwide from more than 1,500 at the beginning of the century to fewer than 100 today.

Jonathan Rubin of Washington, D.C.-based Rubin PLLC represents the plaintiff.

""Independent credit reporting agencies like my client can no longer compete, not because they are not efficient, but because Experian and CoreLogic conspired to drive them out of the market,"" Rubin said. ""This is an astonishing violation of the antitrust laws.""

CreditBureau Serivices, based in Oakland Park, Florida, has also asked the court to certify the case as a class action on behalf of ""all mortgage credit report resellers separated from Experian"" as a result of the violation.