Billion-Dollar Equifax Data Breach Settlement Survives Objectors’ Supreme Court Appeal

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Equifax Data Breach Settlement Overview:

• Who: Equifax has agreed to pay consumers affected by a 2017 data breach up to $425 million in compensation and spend $1 billion improving its data security. Several plaintiffs opposed the deal.
• Why: The court ruled that named plaintiffs would not get $2,500 awards each as part of the deal. Several class members opposed the decision to the Supreme Court for this and other reasons, but the Supreme Court declined to take up the appeal.
• Where: The settlement benefits those whose data was breached nationwide.

A billion-dollar settlement that will see Equifax paying consumers affected by a 2017 data breach $425 million in compensation and spending $1 billion improving its data security has survived an appeal to the Supreme Court.

On Jan. 10, the Supreme Court issued a decision saying it had decided not to take up an appeal from two plaintiffs who objected to the landmark deal, Law360 reports.

The decision upheld a lower court’s move to remove service awards of $2,500 for each of the 100 class representatives. The court did not explain its decision to deny the appeal, which was filed by David R. Watkins and Theodore H. Frank, two of 388 objectors to the deal.

The move comes after the deal survived previous appeals made by members of the class of an estimated 147 million people. 

In April 2021, the approved settlement was held up in the Eleventh Circuit appeals court after objectors said that the trial court failed to publicize the draft approval order.

In January 2020, U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr. issued a 122-page opinion approving the settlement, which would benefit 147 million consumers, saying that the monetary and injunctive benefits in the settlement were likely to exceed what class members would get at trial.

Equifax Suffered Largest Data Breach Of Personal, Financial Information In American History In 2017

The settlement comes after Equifax suffered the largest data breach of personal and financial information in American history in 2017. 

The breach involved almost half of the country’s population. In November 2017, consumers filed a class action lawsuit against Equifax, claiming that the credit bureau failed to protect their information.

Equifax reached a settlement with the consumers to resolve claims but does not admit any wrongdoing by settling the case against them. 

Under the agreement, Equifax will pay $380.5 million into a settlement fund to be used for class members’ benefits and attorney fees. 

Each class member could be reimbursed up to $20,000 for out-of-pocket losses related to the data breach, compensated up to $25 per hour for up to 20 hours of time spent dealing with the breach. Each class member could receive up to 10 years of credit monitoring and identity protec”on services. 

Equifax must also spend at least $1 billion on data security over five years. 

Were you affected by the Equifax data breach? Let us know in the comments!

The class is represented by Amy Keller of DiCello Levitt Gutzler LLC, Kenneth Canfield of Doffermyre Shields Canfield & Knowles LLC and Norman Siegel of Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP.

The Equifax Data Breach Lawsuit is Huang et al. v. Spector et al., Case No. 20-10249, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

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