Equifax Class Action Lawsuit Claims Credit Reporting Agency Fails to Investigate Consumer Disputes

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

A proposed class action lawsuit alleges Equifax has violated federal law by failing to conduct investigations when consumers dispute the information in their credit reports.

Get the latest open class action lawsuits sent to your inbox. Sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter.

The 28-page lawsuit claims that although the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires Equifax to reasonably investigate consumer disputes regarding the accuracy of the information in their credit reports, the defendant has tried to “shirk” this duty under the pretense that it could not locate the individuals’ credit files. The credit reporting agency then sends an “ambiguous, confusing, and deceptive” response letter designed to dissuade consumers from enforcing the rights afforded to them by the FCRA, the suit contends.

According to the case, the form letter Equifax sends in response to certain consumer disputes makes unreasonable demands for personal information that was already provided to the agency and multiple forms of supporting documentation, such as a Social Security card, paystubs, proof of address and more. The letter also includes “burdensome” instructions and a confusing, “overcomplicated” request for the consumer to mail their original documents to two different addresses, making it “impossible” to comply with Equifax’s requests, the complaint adds.

“Equifax’s Form Letter could have served no other purpose other than creating a hurdle for consumers to jump over in order to have their dispute investigated, with the intention of dissuading consumers from sending these disputes to Equifax and, in return, allowing Equifax to diminish or completely avoid its responsibility to investigate consumer disputes under the FCRA,” the filing charges.

One of the plaintiffs, a Minnesota resident, attempted in March 2024 to dispute allegedly inaccurate information that Equifax had published on his credit report, the lawsuit shares. In his dispute letter, the man included proof of the inaccuracies as well as his full name, birthdate, mailing address, previous address and Social Security number so that the defendant could identify him and his credit profile, the case says.

In response to the plaintiff’s dispute, Equifax issued the man a letter explaining that the consumer reporting agency could not locate his credit file using the data he’d provided and requesting the very same information to be sent to it to aid in identifying him, the suit claims.

The complaint contends that Equifax failed to reinvestigate the dispute, record the status of the disputed information on the plaintiff’s report or delete the data at issue from his file within 30 days, as required by the FCRA. Instead, the agency made “overburdensome requests” of the consumer when the data he’d provided was entirely sufficient to identify him, the filing alleges.

Per the suit, the other five plaintiffs had similar experiences and were unable to have the inaccurate information in their reports properly investigated and corrected.

“Equifax’s actions have effectively and unreasonably placed a chilling effect on consumers’ ability to seek redress and vindication under the FCRA unless they respond to Equifax’s patently unreasonable production demands,” the case summarizes.

The Equifax lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the United States who, within the past two years, received a form letter from the defendant stating that their credit file could not be found after sending a dispute letter to the consumer reporting agency.

Check out ClassAction.org’s lawsuit list for the latest open class action lawsuits.