Evan Schuman

A federal judge on Oct. 15 came down strongly on the side of Ticketmaster, agreeing to order a software company to stop a service where it helps people—many of them ticker brokers—buy tickets for Ticketmaster events. U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins ruled in Los Angeles that the software firm, RMG Technologies, must halt the service […]

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this weekend vetoed Californias data breach bill, it was much more important than a single states governor veto. Much more important. That bill would have made a California law mandating compliance with what is roughly the PCI requirements today. The bill doesnt mention the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (familiarly […]

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Oct. 13 vetoed—and effectively killed—one of the nations most stringent proposed e-tail data breach security laws, saying that the bill would have “driven up the costs of compliance, particularly for small businesses.” The proposed California law—AB 779—would have required retailers to protect data in a manner more demanding than the […]

U.S. District Court Judge Audrey B. Collins will likely chart new e-commerce ground on Oct. 15 from her Los Angeles courtroom, when she rules on a preliminary injunction request from Ticketmaster against a 10-person software vendor called RMG Technologies. The Ticketmaster suit is interesting because it involves untraditional legal issues—Ticketmasters core argument is that its […]

As I look back at the 10 months of this soap opera known as the TJX data breach—the biggest ever, in case someone forgot—I keep being reminded of a wonderful piece of dialogue in the 1990s TV show “The West Wing.” One of the characters—a White House deputy communications director named Sam Seaborn—was arguing with […]

Although he wants some more time to think about it, U.S. District Court Judge William Young indicated that he would likely approve TJXs revised $200 million consumer settlement of the nations worst data breach. After hearing about a revised proposed settlement that supplements $30 in-store vouchers with $15 checks—along with other changes, such as increasing […]

Hours before a federal judge demanded that TJX address key concerns about its proposed settlement, the merchant behind the biggest retail data breach ever agreed to some key changes, including offering a cash alternative to its voucher offer. The biggest objection to the initial proposed settlement had been that consumer victims were only offered $30 […]

Major retailers, just like any large business, do not like being told by partners what they can and cant do. But when the credit cards told merchants that they must retain credit card information to deal with returns and chargebacks, they balked, but then agreed. Like any good business, they tried taking an unpleasant requirement […]

Retailings most powerful lobby is launching a campaign to change the way that credit cards and retailers interact. Conceding that the PCI (Payment Card Industry) procedures have not been effective at stopping massive retail breaches, David Hogan, CIO of the National Retail Federation, is pushing for a radical change in tactics, one that will require […]

When U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young told lawyers Sept. 27 that he had serious concerns about the proposed TJX settlement, he also took issue with the part that would allow for consumers to turn the vouchers into cash by selling them. In a courtroom exchange, TJX attorney Harvey J. Wolkoff argued that there […]