15 U.S.C. § 1642
Section 1642 · Issuance of credit cards
This is the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 17 court decisions — leading case American Express Co. v. Koerner (1981)
Most recently applied in Huntington Bank v. Perdue (March 2024)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
No credit card shall be issued except in response to a request or application therefor. This prohibition does not apply to the issuance of a credit card in renewal of, or in substitution for, an accepted credit card.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Effective Date
Section 503(1) of Pub. L. 91 508 provided that: “Section 132 of such Act [this section] takes effect on date of enactment of this title [Oct. 26, 1970].”