HB1301: HB1301 Commerce and trade; clarify requirements for certain data reported by consumer reporting agencies

Georgia law already requires consumer reporting agencies, the companies that compile background checks used for hiring, promotion, or licensing, to keep public record information accurate and up to date when it could hurt someone's chance at a job. This bill rewrites the standard for what counts as 'up to date.' Under the new language, when a report includes items like arrests, indictments, convictions, record restrictions, vacated offenses, discharged offenses, or pardons, the report must accurately reflect the person's present legal status as of the date the report is given out, not just repeat whatever the public record showed at some earlier point. The bill also adds a new rule that sealed criminal history information cannot be reported at all if it has been restricted and sealed by a court order or by law as of the report date. The bill repeals any conflicting laws and does not state a delayed effective date.

• Changes the standard for 'up to date' public record information in employment background checks from matching the current public record to accurately reflecting a person's present legal status as of the report date.
• Adds a new requirement that sealed criminal history record information cannot be included in a consumer report if it is restricted and sealed by court order or by law as of the report date.
• Keeps the existing rule that consumer reporting agencies must either notify consumers when public record information is reported or maintain strict procedures to keep such information current.
• Leaves intact the existing safe harbor allowing agencies that comply with the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act to be treated as compliant with this Georgia law.

Consumer reporting agencies that compile background checks, employers who use those checks for hiring, promotion, retention, or licensing decisions, and job applicants or employees whose arrest, conviction, record restriction, discharge, or pardon information appears in those reports.

People whose criminal records have been sealed, restricted, vacated, or discharged would be protected from having outdated or legally resolved information used against them in job or licensing decisions, since agencies would have to reflect a person's current legal status rather than an old public record entry.

• Section 1 rewrites O.C.G.A. § 10-1-393.14(b)(2)(B) so that public records on arrests, indictments, convictions, record restrictions, vacated offenses, discharged offenses, and pardons are 'up to date' only if the consumer report reflects the present legal status of the matter as of the report date.
• Section 1 adds language barring the reporting of sealed criminal history record information if it is restricted and sealed by court order or by law as of the date the report is furnished.
• Section 1 keeps unchanged the definitions of 'adverse effect,' 'consumer report,' 'consumer reporting agency,' and 'employment purposes' in subsection (a).
• Section 1 keeps unchanged the rule in subsection (d) that agencies complying with the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act as of March 11, 2015, are deemed compliant with this Georgia Code section.
• Section 2 repeals any laws that conflict with the Act.

1. 2026-02-24House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (House)
2. 2026-02-18House Second Readers (House)
3. 2026-02-17House First Readers (House)
4. 2026-02-12House Hopper (House)

• Don Parsons (R, HD-044)Primary sponsor
• Ron Stephens (R, HD-164)
• Trey Kelley (R, HD-016)
• Samuel Park (D, HD-107)
• Tyler Smith (R, HD-018)
• William Werkheiser (R, HD-157)

• consumer reporting agencies
• background checks
• employment law
• criminal record sealing
• consumer protection