Equifax Class Action Filed After Kroger Data Breach

A Georgia man has initiated a class action lawsuit against Equifax Inc. alleging negligence that led to a breach of thousands of employees’ W-2 data.

Plaintiff Betzalel Yochanan says that on May 5, 2016, his employer Kroger announced to its employees that some of their personal identifying information was exposed in a data breach of Equifax’s W-2 Express website. Kroger told its employees that the exposed information may already have been used to file fraudulent tax returns, Yochanan claims.

Georgia-based Equifax is known as one of the major credit reporting agencies in the U.S. Yochanan’s Equifax class action lawsuit says the company failed to implement essential security measures and willfully ignored known weaknesses, as evidenced by the occurrence of prior hacks into Equifax systems.

Yochanan says Equifax gave him access to his own W-2 information via their W-2 Express website. The plaintiff says he accessed the website using the default identification code Equifax had given him. Upon receiving notice of the data breach, Yochanan says he purchased identity protection services at a cost of $9.99 per month.

According to Kroger’s May 5 announcement, the breach exposed W-2 information of an unknown number of current and past Kroger employees. He believes the breach could have affected as many as all 431,000 of Kroger’s employees. The personal information included in these forms includes the employees’ names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and employment information such as wages and benefits, he claims.

Yochanan complains that although he got notice from Kroger, Equifax itself has yet to acknowledge the breach.

The lawsuit alleges Equifax failed to develop a proper response plan to address data breaches, as required by regulations under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Similar guidelines published by the FTC recommend businesses put reasonable data security measures in place.

Even if no fraud has been committed yet, Yochanan claims that the proposed Class Members are harmed by the mere fact that their data has been exposed. He says they will have to keep a closer eye on their financial accounts and credit histories to watch for fraudulent activity. They will also allegedly incur ongoing out-of-pocket expenses for the rest of their lives for protective measures like credit reports, credit freezes, and credit monitoring services.

If certified, the proposed plaintiff Class will represent all persons whose personal identifying information was exposed in the breach announced by Kroger on May 5. The Equifax class action lawsuit also proposes a subclass consisting of all such persons in the state of Georgia.

Yochanan seeks a court order requiring Equifax to strengthen its data security systems, putting them in compliance with applicable laws and current industry best practices. He also seeks financial compensation consisting of damages and restitution, plus attorneys’ fees and costs of litigation.

The plaintiff is represented by Rachel Soffin and John A. Yanchunis of Morgan & Morgan Complex Litigation Group; and by Michael A. Galpern, Andrew P. Bell and James A. Barry of Locks Law Firm LLC.

The Equifax Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is Betzalel Yochanan v. Equifax Inc., et al., Case No. 1:16-cv-01687, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.