US credit and data trader Experian has been fined  €2.7 million by the Dutch privacy watchdog AP for illegally collecting and selling personal information to assess creditworthiness.

The company sold information about debts, payments and bankruptcies gleaned from public sources, such as the chamber of commerce, and from information bought from telecom and energy companies.

Based on this data, people were given a score which other companies could use to rate a person’s creditworthiness.  A bad score could mean people would be refused as new customers or given stricter conditions.

The AP started an investigation following complaints from people who were inexplicably duped by the rating and fined the company in 2023. The amount was not disclosed at the time to allow the company to exhaust all avenues of appeal.

“Many people had no idea they were even in the Experian database, and it must have been a hugely annoying experience,” AP director Aleid Wolfsen said.

“People were reporting they could no longer buy anything on credit, or had to pay a big deposit before they could switch energy provider. It turned out this was due to the Experian credit scores.”

Experian has admitted it acted unlawfully and will not appeal, the AP said. According to its website, it ended its credit rating service from January of 2025 and will remove all data related to Dutch consumers before the end of this year.