Retailer Sues Visa for $13m in Data Breach Penalties

Specialty sports-apparel retailer, Genesco, filed a lawsuit on March 7 against Visa, Inc., seeking to recover nearly $13.3 million in fines that the credit card company seized following a breach of the retailer's systems that may have resulted in fraudulent transactions. In 2010, Genesco suffered a security breach when part of its computer system that processes payments had been hacked into and said at the time that it was possible that certain details of cards used might have been compromised. On behalf of Visa, two financial firms involved in the processing of bank card transactions that customers made at Genesco stores seized $13 million from Genesco’s merchant bank accounts earlier this year. Wells Fargo and Fifth Third Financial seized the money after Genesco was fined by Visa for noncompliance to the PCI standards following a breach of the retailer’s network.