Equifax Inc. has reached a comprehensive resolution to the company’s 2017 data breach. If a U.S. consumer’s personal information was impacted in the Equifax data breach announced on September 7, 2017, the benefits they are eligible for have been announced.
The consumer credit reporting agency has agreed to do the following: (1) pay $380.5 million into a fund to pay benefits to consumers, court-approved fees and costs of class counsel and service awards to the named class representatives, and other expenses; (2) implement and maintain certain data security enhancements; (3) if necessary, pay up to $125 million more to reimburse consumers for out-of-pocket losses resulting from the data breach; and (4) provide certain other relief.
Under the proposed settlement, anyone affected will be eligible for one or more of the following benefits: (1) free credit monitoring or up to a $125 cash payment if they already have credit monitoring services that will continue for at least six (6) more months; (2) up to $20,000 in other cash payments for time and money spent preventing or recovering from identity theft because of the data breach; and (3) free identity restoration services provided by Experian to help remedy the effects of identity theft and fraud.
The free credit monitoring includes credit monitoring services provided by Experian for at least four years with the following features: three-bureau credit monitoring providing notices of changes to the class member’s credit report at all three national credit bureaus, free copies of a class member’s Experian credit report, updated on a monthly basis, and up to one million dollars ($1,000,000) in identity theft insurance. Members of the class-action lawsuit can also get up to six more years of free one-bureau credit monitoring through Equifax.
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