Target settles data breach lawsuit with banks for $39 million
Pending a court's approval, the retailer will settle legal proceedings with affected financial institutions.
Nearly two years after Target's massive data breach leaked customer payment info, the retailer has reached a settlement with financial institutions. The company agreed to pay $39 million to the likes of MasterCard and banks who filed claims stemming from the 2013 incident. More specifically, Target will pay $20 million to the settlement class and $19 million to MasterCard to fund its Account Data Compromise program that ties into the hack. These figures are in addition to the $10 million settlement that the retail company already agreed to with lawyers for individual victims and its $67 million settlement with Visa.
The breach, initially reported in December 2013, included the unauthorized access of 40 million credit and debit card numbers. To make matters worse, Target ignored alerts about the hack for 12 days. A preliminary approval hearing is set to take place in the in the US District Court for the District of Minnesota today, with a final approval hearing slated to take place next year. What's more, the legal proceedings highlight the fact that banks and other financial institutions shouldn't have to foot the bill for data breaches that are out of their control.
[Image credit: Getty]
