Equifax, Investors Get Final OK of $149 Million Hack Settlement

Equifax Inc. can settle an investor suit stemming from a 2017 data breach that laid bare the personal information of nearly 150 million Americans for $149 million after a Georgia federal district judge gave final approval.

The settlement resolves investor allegations that the credit reporting agency misled them about the breach. Judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr. certified the class for settlement purposes, according to U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia filings entered on the docket Wednesday.

Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP served as lead counsel to the class. The firm will receive $29.8 million—20% of the settlement fund—in fees, along with nearly $660,000 in expenses, according to one of Thrash’s orders.

Union Asset Management Holding AG, which served as the lead plaintiff, will receive more than $121,000 “as reimbursement for its reasonable costs and expenses directly related to its representation” of the class, Thrash said.

Over 185,000 copies of the settlement plan notice were sent to potential class members, and no one objected to the allocation plan, one of the orders said. There was only one objection to the settlement itself, but it was denied, Thrash said.

King & Spalding LLP represented Equifax, which didn’t admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement.

The case is In re Equifax Inc. Sec. Litig., N.D. Ga., No. 17-cv-03463, settlement filings docketed 7/1/20.