PRINCETON, N.J. – Heartland Payment Systems has agreed to pay MasterCard issuers $41.4 million to settle claims in the massive cards breach of 2008.
Heartland paid out $60 million to Visa issuers in January in exchange for pledges for credit unions and banks not to bring civil suits in the case, in which an estimated 130 million accounts were exposed to hackers.
Heartland is one of several companies to have paid out claims to Visa and MasterCard issuers in recent years, along with TJX Cos. The two companies were among at least a dozen national retailers to have had their data systems breached by hackers, who used the cards information to siphon hundreds of millions from card holders. Both companies, as well as several others, were breached by the same group. The other victims were Barnes & Noble, Dave and Busters, DSM, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Office Max, Sports Authority and Boston Market.
Under the terms of the latest settlement, MasterCard card issuers that filed timely claims for reimbursement of operational expenses or to recover fraud losses on certain accounts processed by Heartland during 2008 will be eligible to receive a specified dollar payment with receipt expected during the third calendar quarter of 2010, if they choose to accept the offers.
