In one of the largest security breaches of all time, hackers stole information from over 100 million credit cards from Heartland Payment Systems. Heartland provides payment processing services for over a quarter million American businesses. A class action lawsuit followed the breach, and the company agreed to pay between $1 million and $2.5 million to the plaintiffs. But since Heartland didn’t have addresses for the plaintiffs, the company launched a $1.5 million ad campaign to reach everyone affected, telling them to submit their claims for their share of the settlement. Heartland said they received 290 claims. Of those 290, Heartland determined that 11 were valid.
After all was said and done, 100 million credit card accounts were hacked and 11 people got a piece of the settlement. Furthermore, the details of the settlement stipulated that the most a single claimant could receive was $175. If every claimant received the maximum possible allowance, a total of $1,925 was doled out to victims of one of the biggest security breaches ever. At minimum, that is .002 percent of the total settlement given over to actual victims. The rest went to non-profits specializing in consumer protection.
Is this fair? Should Heartland have spent their advertising dollars more wisely, considering they ultimately spent more advertising dollars per claim than they did on actual settlement payments? Or do the non-profits who seek to spread awareness of this issue deserve the hundreds of thousands of dollars they received?
Sarelson Law Firm – Miami class action attorneys