Credit Union Class Settles Equifax Data Breach Claims for $5.5M
The settlement with credit unions is separate from a related consumer class action lawsuit.
A Georgia federal judge has given preliminary approval to a settlement in which Equifax Inc. agreed to pay $5.5 million to financial institutions that sued the credit rating agency after a data breach exposed personal information of 147 million Americans.
CUNA sued Equifax in October 2017 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
“Credit unions have borne substantial costs as a result of this massive data breach, and the settlement offers recourse on the path toward making affected credit unions whole again,” Jim Nussle, CUNA’s president and CEO, said in a statement about the settlement. “Breaches like this are occurring on a regular basis, and the only thing that will prevent them in the future is a strong national data security standard that holds all entities accountable.”
Nussle continued: “CUNA and the Leagues look forward to continuing our engagement with Congress to enact robust data security requirements for all who handle consumers’ personal information.”
In a court filing, lawyers for the plaintiffs said the settlement “resulted from good faith, arm’s-length settlement negotiations, including multiple settlement conferences, both in-person and telephonically among counsel for the parties.” The settlement with the financial institutions, including credit unions as named plaintiffs, is separate from a related consumer class action.
The proposed financial institution class includes thousands of financial institutions, court records stated.
The named financial institution plaintiffs are: Army Aviation Center Federal Credit Union, ASI Federal Credit Union, Bank of Louisiana, Consumers Cooperative Credit Union, Elements Financial Federal Credit Union, Firefly Credit Union, First Financial Credit Union, Halliburton Employees’ Federal Credit Union, Heritage Federal Credit Union, Hudson River Community Credit Union, Peach State Federal Credit Union, SeaComm Federal Credit Union, Services Credit Union, Seven Seventeen Credit Union, Sky Federal Credit Union, State Employees Federal Credit Union, Summit Credit Union, Suncoast Credit Union, The Summit Federal Credit Union, Washington Gas Light Federal Credit Union and Wright-Patt Credit Union.
Eligible financial institutions that submit valid claims will be entitled to $4.50 per “alerted on” debit and credit cards. These are cards whose numbers were exposed in the 2017 data breach. Victim institutions with valid claims also will be entitled to an additional $5,000 for certain out-of-pocket losses. The settlement establishes a 180-day claim period.
For its part, Equifax, represented by lawyers at the firm King & Spalding, agreed “to adopt and/or maintain security measures to protect the sensitive data it collects,” the plaintiffs lawyers said in their settlement papers. Equifax has agreed to pay the lawyers for the class up to $2 million in legal fees and up to $250,000 in litigation costs and expenses.
A final settlement approval hearing is set for Oct. 22.