If Equifax Settles the Class Lawsuit for $70B, How Much Will You Get? $489 (or not)

Equifax was hit with a massive data breach that affected up to 143 million American’s. Bloomberg reports that a class lawsuit is already being prepared against Equifax, for up to $70 Billion. A couple of people from Oregon retained hotshot lawyers to litigate/settle the case.

Equifax knew and should have known that failure to maintain adequate technological safeguards would eventually result in a massive data breach. Equifax could have and should have substantially increased the amount of money it spent to protect against cyber-attacks but chose not to.

So if there were 143M people affected, and they settle for $70B, we’ll each get $489.50, right (70,000,000,000 ÷ 143,000,000)? At least that would be a silver lining, no?

No, not at all. For three reasons, we won’t be walking away with that amount of money:

  • First, this is just a number being thrown out by the lawyers. In all likelihood it won’t materialize.
  • Second, presumably, the $70B includes the lawyer fees and other costs. I’m not sure how much to knock off for that, but probably a significant amount.
  • Finally, Equifax only has assets of around $6B and market cap of around $17B, so I don’t see how they’ll actually be paying that amount, even if the court would obligate them. Company would bankrupt before that point.

It’s interesting that a couple of people jumped to file the class lawsuit. I assume their thinking is that they’ll be eligible for more compensation as is typically the case with class settlements that the official plaintiffs get more. In this case it seems a bit odd since they weren’t whistleblowers of any sort, just names on the paper.

Important note: it’s already been discussed that if you sign up for the one-year free Equifax credit monitoring offer, you might lose out on your right to any class settlement, so I’d hold off on that for now. I imagine they’ll take that clause out eventually after the uproar.

In conclusion, let me just make clear that I am no more knowledgeable about class lawsuits than anyone else, but it’s fun to talk about! Chime in below if you know more.
    Chuck
  • On September 8, 2017, 12:18

View Comments (111)

  • Okay, so you pointed out the assets and market cap but you didn't allow for the fact that they absolutely have to have insurance, not sue in what amount and if it is per person but just thought I would throw that out there.

  • Recently, I have been noticing on my Gmail account, some retailers were, and still are, sending me a notice that my order has arrived and wants me to participate in a survey about my shopping experience. Should I copy and print these emails for evidence? And, more importantly, confirms my information was compromised?

  • We're only assuming that every one of the 145 million people file the shit, I bet only half that number go through with it. , if that's the case then we'll see more.

  • Sign up for they're free credit monitoring service. If your account ha been affected they will provide up to $1,000,000.00 through insurance to pay for lawyers fees to fight it. you might get $1.56 from a class action suit.

  • In the grand scheme of things, I'd rather see this company crumble.. sure some lawyers will make millions, but at the cost of the greedy pig. The one who holds our financial future in their hands. The ones who forced me to play their game and run through their hoops. The facts are there! They are corrupt, obviously duplicitous by nature (hence why were having this argument) but this monkey house will burn.

    Now, it is important to note, that we are likely the body of the masses, being driven by elite hacker groups to to bring about a monumental change. However manipulative, we wouldn't have come together otherwise. For we the masses are blind (including myself) and cannot be relied on to bring about evolution. THIS is our chance. We must bankrupt to rebuild.

  • - You can Enroll for free monitoring and still join Class Action Lawsuit. The fine print was referring to their monitoring software.
    - You can join CALawsuit and still file a Civil Lawsuit
    - Google BOT sues Equifax for a simple way to file the forms to sue them.

  • I'm sorry, but, the majority of the money should be going to all those who were affected, not the lawyers. Why bother if we get penny's for our information being hacked? Lawyers should only get a very small percentage on class action lawsuits.

  • Keep in mind that although reports say 143 million people may have been affected, Equifax is alleging that information for 209,000 people was or could have been obtained. That means if you are not among that 209,000, you are probably far less likely to be awarded a judgment than if you are in that smaller group of people. Courts do sometimes look at individual cases and allocate funds according to actual injury as opposed to granting 143 million people a blanket amount of money.

    • No, 143 million people's credit report information definitely were compromised, which includes social security numbers. "In addition, the hack compromised 209,000 people's credit card numbers" - mainly those who had paid Equifax for monitoring service - "and personal dispute details for another 182,000 people."

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