Boston, MA 06/03/2014 (wallstreetpr) – In the recent months, Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) has come to known for the massive data breach that impacted its system during the holiday shopping season. However, more than a negative reputation that the cyber-attack has brought to Target, the company is also worried of possible claims from affected customers.
The company told the U.S. Securities Exchange in a recent filing it believes credit card companies would make claims against it. However, the retailer said it is not ready to take the claims lying down, and it intends to enter a high-stakes dispute with the payment card networks over the liability of the massive cyber-attack.
In the SEC filing, the company went on to state that it expects its dispute with the payment card networks to end in settlement negotiations. Although Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) could not tell SEC the final costs it might incur in relation to the data breach settlement, the costs might be large enough to impact the company’s future financial results.
Blame Game Opens
According to the credit card providers, Target should be liable for the massive cyber-attack on its payment system because it did not have a watertight data security. In the SEC filing, Target said that a forensic investigator acting on behalf of the credit card companies claimed that its data security standard was wanting at the time of the data breach.
The major card payment companies taking on Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) over the cyber-attack issue include MasterCard Inc (NYSE:MA), American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), Visa Inc (NYSE:V) and Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS).
Nothing Of The Sort
Inasmuch as Target expects the card networks to push it to the wall, the retailer told SEC that its independent third-party assessor was satisfied that its payment system was up to the applicable data security standard at the time of the attack.
In the event that the card networks get their way in the liability argument, Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) could face huge financial losses in the form of settlements and penalties, without mentioning reputation damage.
