> But a lawsuit isn't at the heart of KlearGear's despicable tactic. Ruining the credit of its critics is. ...If that fine is not paid, the delinquency will be reported to the nation's credit bureaus.

Question: what ability do most companies have to report something to credit bureaus? I mean, selling my stuff with just Stripe and a DBA, I certainly can't, as far as I know. Credit-card companies themselves certainly can, on the other hand.

Is there a way for "normal" small businesses to affect your credit score based on any kind of non-payment of bill? How do businesses "acquire" this ability? Can anybody just tell a credit score company, "X didn't pay me money, knock their score down"?

I'm just wondering if this is a bluff, which it probably is.

[Edit: Googling it a bit reveals that there are two methods. One is to hand the debt over to a collections agency -- you'll receive less of it, but they'll automatically report to a credit bureau if it's not paid. The other is to become a member of the three main credit organizations, but that involves membership fees etc., so presumably only makes sense if you deal with a lot of consumer billing already where this is a regular occurrence.]