Is Groundcheck an FCRA consumer report?

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. § 1681) regulates "consumer reports" — defined as information bearing on a consumer's credit worthiness, character, general reputation, or personal characteristics, used for credit, insurance, employment, housing, or other consumer-purpose decisions. Groundcheck falls outside this definition on multiple grounds.

Why Groundcheck is not an FCRA report:

1. Subject is a business, not a consumer. Groundcheck verifies LLCs, corporations, and sole proprietorships acting as commercial service providers. The FCRA's "consumer" definition is an individual person, not a business entity.

2. Use is commercial procurement, not consumer credit. The user is hiring the contractor for a service, not extending credit or employment to them.

3. Data is public-records only. Groundcheck pulls licensing board status, Secretary of State filings, court records, OSHA citations, and BBB profiles. None of these are FCRA-regulated. The FCRA regulates information ASSEMBLED FOR a consumer report, not the underlying public records themselves.

4. No consumer credit data. Groundcheck does not access Experian, Equifax, or TransUnion consumer credit files.

5. No personal criminal history. Groundcheck does not run state or federal criminal history checks on individuals.

6. No employment screening. Groundcheck is not used to make hiring decisions for the contractor as an employee.

Practical implications:

- No consumer consent required. You can run Groundcheck without notifying the contractor. - No "permissible purpose" certification required. - No adverse-action notice required if you decide not to hire based on the report. - No FCRA dispute process. If the contractor believes the report is wrong, they must correct the underlying public record at the source (the licensing board, the Secretary of State, the court). - No 7-year or 10-year reporting limits as in FCRA consumer reports.

What WOULD trigger FCRA on contractor-related screening:

- Running a personal credit check on the contractor's owner. Requires the owner's written consent and FCRA-compliant adverse-action workflow if used. - Running a personal criminal history check on the contractor's owner. Same. - Using the contractor's information as part of extending a CONSUMER mortgage or loan to them as a borrower. This is a credit decision, not a contractor verification.

None of these are what Groundcheck does. Groundcheck is structured to operate cleanly outside FCRA: public records only, business focus, commercial procurement use case, no aggregation of FCRA-regulated data, and explicit non-FCRA disclosure in product documentation.

Commercial users (procurement, lending, real estate): same conclusion applies. B2B due diligence using public records is not FCRA-regulated. You can run unlimited Groundchecks on contractors as part of vendor onboarding without FCRA implications.

A note on look-alike services: some contractor screening platforms (Concord, Checkr-for-contractors, certain prequalification services) DO run FCRA-regulated owner-level background checks with consent. Those tools require consent and adverse-action workflows. Groundcheck does not — because it does not access FCRA-regulated data in the first place.

If you are unsure whether your use case is FCRA-regulated, consult an attorney. The general rule: if you are deciding whether to hire a BUSINESS based on PUBLIC records, you are outside FCRA. If you are deciding anything about an INDIVIDUAL based on private credit, criminal, or other personal data, you are inside FCRA.