San Francisco became the first city to sue Equifax on behalf of 15 million Californians affected by their much reported data breach. City Attorney Dennis Herrera wrote in a statement, "Equifax’s incompetence would be comical if the subject matter weren’t so serious. This company fell asleep at the switch and upended the lives of millions of people."
The lawsuit seeks civil penalties as well as monetary restitution for Californians, though as ABC 7 reports, it's unclear how much money would go to individuals affected.
This is not the first suit filed against Equifax as the Associated Press reports, the state of Massachusetts has already filed its own suit.
Herrera says that under California law, Equifax should have informed consumers of the breach as soon as they were aware of it, rather than delaying over a month before making the September 7 disclosure that affected 143 million Americans.
"California law requires entities that do business in the state to notify the owner or licensee of the information about a data breach 'immediately following discovery, if the personal information was, or is reasonably believed to have been acquired by an unauthorized person.' The notice that Equifax finally posted contained confusing and misleading information and didn’t include information required under California law," reads Herrera's statement.
Equifax issued a statement in response to ABC 7 saying, "We cannot comment on pending litigation, but want to reassure consumers that we are remaining focused on helping them navigate the situation and providing the best customer support possible. We are listening to issues consumers have experienced and their suggestions, which are helping to further inform our actions as we continue to improve this process."
