Merchant

A U.S. District Court in Ohio has given preliminary approval to a class-action settlement for unlawful collection practices against law firm Kaufman & Florence, based in Lebanon, Ohio.

As more merchants store credit card data in the virtual servers of cloud-based payment systems, the challenge for security providers is to keep the data safe.

At first glance, it comes across as a potential no-win situation.

Independent sales organizations now may offer merchants a security package that combines breach protection, consulting services and software that scans computers for unprotected card data.

The rise of e-commerce is creating a new kind of global merchant–the small to midsize business that sells and ships products anywhere in the world. And those retailers are looking to ISOs for guidance.

Industry analysts have called 2012 a possible “breakthrough year” in the payments industry for Near Field Communication technology.

United Kingdom homewares retailer Lakeland will offer customers contactless card and mobile payments through a partnership with Barclaycard and Visa Europe.

As the newest member of the InComm Inc. family, Medagate Corp. hopes to reach more retailers and expand its restricted-spend prepaid card platform beyond health care and into everyday products.

In what industry analysts view as the first major salvo in what could be a series of post-Durbin fee shakeups, merchant acquirers should learn soon the details of Visa Inc.’s new fixed acquirer network-participation fee.

A taxi organization in the South African city of Cape Town could become the country’s first taxi operator to introduce a fare-payment system that accepts prepaid smart cards along with cash.