Class Action Alleges Equifax ‘Routinely’ Fails to Reinvestigate Disputed Consumer Report Information

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From Georgia comes a proposed class action lawsuit wherein the plaintiff claims Equifax Information Services, LLC routinely fails to reinvestigate disputed credit report information despite Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requirements. 

The case centers on report “inquiry” information that’s disputed by a consumer. An inquiry on a consumer report, the lawsuit explains, is the identification of a person or business that obtained a consumer report from Equifax in connection with, say, a credit transaction. This inquiry information, the lawsuit continues, can sometimes be inaccurate.

Despite its legal obligation to thoroughly look into such matters, Equifax, according to the complaint, ignores its reinvestigation obligation when a consumer disputes inquiry information. The company instead instructs consumers to “contact the person who obtained the consumer’s report,” the case alleges.

Per the plaintiff, the lawsuit claims the man reviewed his Equifax credit report in December 2016 and noticed the company was reporting an inquiry from satellite internet service provider Hughes Network Systems that he did not recognize. The case says the plaintiff had no prior relationship with non-party Hughes.

The plaintiff claims that after contacting Equifax about the questionable inquiry, a company representative instructed him to contact Hughes to file a request to remove the information. At this point, the plaintiff reportedly ran into a roadblock. From the suit:

“[The plaintiff] contacted Hughes and requested that Hughes remove the information from his Equifax file. A Hughes representative told [the plaintiff] that because he had never been a Hughes customer, his information was not in its records and that it could not help him.

[The plaintiff] contacted Equifax to dispute the Hughes inquiry again on or about February 15, 2017 and again on or about March 28, 2017. Each time, an Equifax representative told him to contact Hughes concerning removal of the inquiry.”

The lawsuit goes onto to claim the plaintiff again notified Equifax of his dispute in July 2017. In response, Equifax allegedly claimed it had reviewed the plaintiff’s dispute and “contacted the company reporting the information to Equifax.” According to the lawsuit, this claim is untrue.