UPDATED 11:36 EDT / DECEMBER 03 2015

NEWS

Target’s legal bill from the 2013 holiday season mega-breach tops $300 million

If there’s one retailer that won’t need any reminders about the importance of proper security this holiday season, it’s Target Corporation. The discount chain’s losses from the Black Friday breach that claimed the financial details of more than 40 million consumers two years ago has officially passed the $300 million mark this week after management signed a settlement to reimburse the damages suffered by MasterCard Inc. card issuers in the wake of the historic attack.

The $39.4 million agreement comes on top of the approximately $290 million Target has already spent to try and put the incident in its past, including $67 million paid to Visa Inc. as part of a similar deal struck in August. The accord received court approval a few weeks ago while the retailer was still hammering out the details of its settlement with MasterCard issuers, which took a tougher negotiating stance despite taking a considerably smaller hit from the attack.

Target successfully reached an agreement with the payment processing giant back in April to pay $19 million but encountered unexpected objection from a group of partners led by Citigroup Inc., Capital One Financial Corp. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. that argued the sum is too small. The gambit seems to have paid off. The new deal struck this week will see the retailer pay out $20.25 million to the affected banks and credit unions on top of the $19.11 million that was already earmarked for card issuers.

The deal has received a tentative approval from U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson that clears the way for formal authorization in the next hearing due on the subject next year. But the saga is not over quite yet for Target. The company and several of its key executives still face a lawsuit from shareholders over their handling of the breaches well as an ongoing Federal Communications Commission (FCC) probe into the matter that will likely incur many more legal expenses before the incident is fully resolved.

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