A proposed class action filed this spring is putting Canada’s two big credit bureaus — Equifax and TransUnion — under an uncomfortable spotlight. The allegation at its core is one I see the consequences of regularly as a mortgage broker: credit reports that contain errors, and the real financial damage those errors do to ordinary people.
Here’s what the lawsuit is about, what’s actually been decided so far (less than the headlines suggest), and — most practically — what you should do about your own credit file before you’re sitting across from a lender.
What the Lawsuit Alleges
In May 2026, law firm Klyden Legal filed a proposed class action against Equifax and TransUnion in the Quebec Superior Court, announced in an official release. The proposed class covers consumers whose personal information in their Equifax or TransUnion credit file was false or inaccurate at any time since May 5, 2023.
The lead example is memorable: one of the representative plaintiffs, Kevin Villeneuve, received alerts that a new mortgage had appeared on his credit file — except the mortgage belonged to a different Kevin Villeneuve, whose information had been mixed into his file. If your name is common, that scenario probably doesn’t feel far-fetched.
The filing seeks $5,000 in damages plus $5,000 in punitive damages per class member — the source of the “$10,000 per Canadian” headlines, as covered by Daily Hive. Court documents and coverage cite data suggesting credit-file errors affect millions of files, with many taking multiple correction requests to fix.