[April 16, 2015]

Financial Institutions Speak Out Against Target's Settlement with MasterCard, Through Court-Appointed Lead Counsel Zimmerman Reed and Chestnut Cambronne

Counsel for Banks, Credit Unions, and other payment card-issuing financial institutions, who are in litigation against Target (News - Alert) for its 2013 data breach, spoke out strongly today against the recent purported settlement between Target and MasterCard. The MasterCard settlement attempts to release financial institutions' claims against Target without involvement by the financial institutions, their Court-appointed counsel Zimmerman Reed and Chestnut Cambronne, or the Court itself. In reality, MasterCard's (News - Alert) settlement only appears to provide for a return of a small portion of card issuers' reissuance and fraud loss damages caused by the Target data breach. MasterCard's settlement has not been endorsed in any way by the financial institutions leading the case, by their Court-appointed lead counsel, or by the Court overseeing the ongoing multi-state litigation proceedings against Target in Minnesota federal court. In fact, the financial institutions and their attorneys were excluded rom the private negotiations that led to the Target-MasterCard settlement.

At this time, Court-appointed counsel for card issuers are recommending that no financial institution enter into any release of claims with Target or MasterCard offered outside the ongoing litigation in the U.S. District Court before the Honorable Paul A. Magnuson, without first understanding the rights available in those proceedings. The Court has set a hearing for April 27, 2015 to address this issue.

The $19 million settlement appears to represent a minimal portion of the actual damages incurred by card-issuing financial institutions. Nevertheless, Target and MasterCard have represented this amount will cover a substantial portion of MasterCard issuers' damages from the data breach. Target and MasterCard have not shown how their representations could be substantiated for most or all card-issuing financial institutions.

Zimmerman Reed and Chestnut Cambronne, along with a coalition of other attorneys across the country, are representing banks and financial institutions that were harmed by Target's data breach after customers' personal and financial information was jeopardized. The case is titled, In re: Target Corporation Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, MDL 2522.

Please contact 1-877-725-5795 or visit www.securitybreachlawsuit.com should you have any questions about the Target-MasterCard settlement or the ongoing multi-state litigation brought by the card-issuing financial institutions.

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