Equifax fined $18.4 million in damages over credit report errors

In August 2013, a jury in the Portland, Oregon Federal District Court awarded Julie Miller $18.4 million in punitive damages when despite two years of complaints and filings Equifax failed to rectify errors in her credit report that blocked many aspects of her financial life.  Miller had followed the company's processes for resolving the errors in her report, which were a result of entangling her record with that of another, much less creditworthy, Julie Miller as a result of the partial matching technique credit bureaus use. Commentators suggested that the size of the award - later reduced to $1.62 million by the trial judge - might change the credit bureaus' calculation that fines and settlements for errors were just a cost of doing business.

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/03/your-money/credit-scores/credit-bureaus-willing-to-tolerate-errors-experts-say.html

https://www.insideprivacy.com/financial-privacy/judge-reduces-punitive-damages-awarded-against-equifax-in-fcra-suit/

Writer: Tara Siegel Bernard, Inside Privacy

Publication: New York Times, Covington & Burling