The Statutory Architecture of Furnisher Duties Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2(b)

The Statutory Framework Governing Furnisher Liability

The Fair Credit Reporting Act does not impose open-ended, privately enforceable obligations on furnishers of consumer information. Instead, Congress adopted a carefully staged enforcement mechanism that conditions private liability on a specific statutory trigger and limits enforceable duties to a defined post-dispute context. 

Understanding furnisher liability therefore begins not with accuracy in the abstract (though this is usually deemed to be a necessary condition of § 1681s-2(b) liability), but with the structure Congress enacted.

The Distinction Between § 1681s-2(a) and § 1681s-2(b)

The statute draws a sharp line between a furnisher’s general duty to report information and its duty to respond to disputes. Section 1681s-2(a) governs the furnishing of information in the first instance. It requires accuracy and correction, but Congress expressly foreclosed private enforcement of those duties. Enforcement of § 1681s-2(a) is reserved to governmental actors. That choice reflects a policy judgment: furnishers are not to be exposed to private litigation simply for reporting information that later turns out to be incorrect.

The Statutory Trigger for Private Liability

Private enforcement enters the statute only in § 1681s-2(b), and only after a particular sequence has occurred. The text makes clear that § 1681s-2(b) duties arise only after a consumer disputes information with a consumer reporting agency pursuant to § 1681i and the CRA provides notice of that dispute to the furnisher. 

The Consumer Reporting Agency’s Gatekeeping Role

This design places the consumer reporting agency in a mandatory gatekeeping role. Congress authorized CRAs to screen disputes and to decline reinvestigation when a dispute is frivolous or irrelevant. Furnishers are given no comparable authority. The statute does not permit furnishers to decide whether a dispute is worth investigating. Once the CRA transmits notice, the furnisher’s obligations set forth in § 1681s-2(b)(1)(A)-(E) are mandatory and non-discretionary.

The Mandatory Nature of Furnisher Duties After Notice

The statutory trigger is receipt of notice from a CRA that a consumer disputes the accuracy or completeness of information furnished by that furnisher. The statute does not prescribe the form of that notice, the level of detail it must contain, or the method of transmission. It requires only that notice be provided. 

The duties imposed by § 1681s-2(b) arise upon receipt of that notice and not before.

The Enumerated Obligations Under § 1681s-2(b)(1)(A)–(E)

Once triggered, § 1681s-2(b)(1) imposes a set of enumerated obligations on the furnisher. These duties are independent. Compliance with one does not excuse noncompliance with another. The statute does not collapse them into a single generalized requirement.

The Allocation of the Burden of Verification to the Furnisher

This fifth duty is essential to the structure Congress adopted. The statute does not require a consumer to prove the truth of his dispute. Nor does it require the consumer to verify the correctness of his own contentions. Section 1681s-2(b)(1)(E) instead places the obligation squarely on the “person” who furnished the information—that is, the furnisher—to verify the accuracy and completeness of the information it reported. 

If the furnisher successfully verifies the reported information, it necessarily establishes that the consumer’s dispute is unfounded. If it cannot, the statute does not permit the furnisher to continue reporting on the ground that the consumer has failed to prove otherwise. Where the furnisher lacks records sufficient to substantiate the reported assertion, where those records are 

• incomplete, 
• inconsistent, or 
• unavailable, or where 
• verification cannot be accomplished, 

continued reporting is prohibited. The plain text thus allocates the burden of verification entirely to the furnisher once a dispute is triggered: the furnisher may continue furnishing the disputed information only by affirmatively verifying that its reporting is correct. Absent such verification, § 1681s-2(b)(1)(E) requires correction or deletion, not the continued dissemination of its unproven reporting.

The Outcome-Oriented Structure of § 1681s-2(b)

The structure of the statute confirms this allocation of responsibility. Congress required consumers to initiate disputes through consumer reporting agencies as a prerequisite to furnisher liability. Consumer reporting agencies, in turn, are vested with discretion to screen disputes and to decline reinvestigation where a dispute is frivolous or irrelevant. Furnishers are not given any comparable gatekeeping role. Once notice is transmitted by a CRA, the statute imposes affirmative obligations on the furnisher 

• to investigate, 
• to review, 
• to report, and 
• to verify. 

Where verification cannot be achieved, the statute prescribes the consequence. It does not permit continued reporting pending further certainty or judicial resolution.

Nothing in § 1681s-2(b) conditions these duties on the furnisher’s subjective confidence in its reporting, nor on the mere existence of internal records that restate the disputed information. The statute is outcome-oriented. It requires that an investigation be conducted, that relevant information be reviewed, that results be communicated, that inaccuracies or incompleteness be corrected across all reporting agencies, and that unverifiable information be removed. Each obligation operates independently. 

Failure to satisfy any one of them constitutes noncompliance with the statute.

The Temporal Limits of Furnisher Liability

The statute further makes clear that furnisher liability under § 1681s-2(b) is strictly post-notice liability. Congress did not authorize private enforcement for inaccuracies that occur before a furnisher receives notice of a dispute from a consumer reporting agency. Recoverable damages must therefore be traceable to the furnisher’s failure to perform its statutory duties after notice has been received. This temporal limitation reinforces the statutory bargain: furnishers are protected from immediate suit, but only on the condition that they comply fully with the obligations imposed once the dispute mechanism is triggered.

The Statutory Design and Its Enforcement Consequences

Taken together, § 1681s-2(b) establishes a narrow but mandatory regime. It filters consumer disputes through consumer reporting agencies, shields furnishers from private enforcement at the front end, and then imposes specific, non-discretionary duties once notice is given. The statute requires 

investigation, 

• review, 
• reporting, 
• correction, and 
• verification

and it prohibits the continued reporting of information that cannot be substantiated. That is what the statute requires on its face. Everything else follows from that structure.