ATLANTA–Equifax has asked a court to reject claims made by 46 credit unions and banks seeking damages related to the company’s massive 2017 data breach.
The financial institutions are seeking damages for costs related to replacing cards, protecting members, and taking other actions as a result of the data breach.
But Equifax told Judge Thomas Thrash of the Northern District of Georgia that the claims should be tossed, arguing in its filing that the plaintiffs’ claims were based on seeing the massive breach as having “such ripple effects on the economy that any bank, credit union, or credit association may sue.”
Equifax has confirmed the 2017 breach revealed data and personal information on as many as 150-million people.
Equifax said in its filing that banks and credit unions do have legal standing to make their case, but cannot show that Equifax actions caused them to spend the money they are seeking to recover.
“Equifax’s allegedly inadequate security measures did not cause Plaintiffs’ alleged harms…,” the filing states. “Plaintiffs cannot plausibly allege that any of these costs are due to Equifax and not due to other data breaches, regulations … or the security risks that companies face.”