"Among the issues on which it lobbied was limiting the legal liability of credit-reporting companies."
September 11, 2017
Equifax lobbied for more lax regulations ahead of massive data breach
By Michael Rapoport
& AnnaMaria Andriotis
The Wall Street Journal
$500,000 spent on lobbying in first half of 2017, in line with recent years
Equifax Inc. was lobbying lawmakers and federal agencies to ease up on regulation of credit-reporting companies in the months before its massive data breach.
Equifax spent at least $500,000 on lobbying Congress and federal regulators in the first half of 2017, according to its congressional lobbying-disclosure reports. Among the issues on which it lobbied was limiting the legal liability of credit-reporting companies.
That issue is the subject of a bill that a panel of the House Financial Services Committee, which oversees the industry, discussed the same day Equifax disclosed the cyberattack that exposed personal financial data of as many as 143 million Americans.
Equifax EFX, -0.19% has also lobbied Congress and regulatory agencies on issues around “data security and breach notification” and “cybersecurity threat information sharing,” according to its lobbying disclosures. The amount Equifax spent in the first half of this year appears to be in line with previous spending. In 2016 and 2015, the company’s reports show it spent $1.1 million and $1.02 million, respectively, on lobbying activities. While the company had broadly similar lobbying issues in those years, the liability matter was new in 2017.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/equifax-lobbied-for-more-lax-regulations-ahead-of-massive-data-breach-2017-09-11
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