WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. -- Quick Chek and Hess may have become the first highly visible convenience chains to get hit with lawsuits tied to protecting consumers from identity theft.
The two East Coast chains, along with other retailers in New Jersey and other states, were named in several lawsuits alleging the violation of a 2003 federal law designed to combat identity theft and increase data security in the payment process.
Merchants may be exposed to damages of up to $1,000 per transactionamounting to billions of dollars in [image-nocss] potential claims, according to the New Jersey Law Journal.
Lawsuits in New Jersey, as reported in the Journal last week, charged Toys R Us, Wayne, N.J.; Quick Chek Food Stores, Whitehouse Station, N.J.; Hess, Woodbridge, N.J.; and Avis and Budget car rental companies, both in Parsippany, N.J., with putting too much identifying information on debit- and credit-card receipts. Lawsuits filed elsewhere make similar charges against companies such as IKEA, Leiden, South Holland, The Netherlands; Costco, Issaquah, Wash.; Victoria's Secret, Reynoldsburg, Ohio; and Rite-Aid, Camp Hill, Pa.
More lawsuits are on the way, due to the sheer volume of potential claimants, the report said. Lawyers for plaintiffs and defendants say that anyone who checks his or her credit-card receipts may find identifying data that violates the Fair & Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), 15 U.S.C. 1681c(g)(1), which became law in 2003. FACTA prohibits listing, on a receipt produced electronically, the expiration date or more than five digits of the account number from the consumer's credit or debit card. A merchant may be exposed to damages of up to $1,000 per infraction.
Plenty is at stake for large retail chains, which could face billions of dollars in claims if a wide-scale error resulted in hundreds of thousands of non-complying receipts, said a defense lawyer.
The New Jersey cases, filed in April and May, follow on the heels of litigation in California, where dozens of cases are pending. None has been decided, but judges have denied defense motions to dismiss for failure to state a claim, among them Judge David Carter of the Central District of California in Pirian v. In-N-Out Burgers, 06-1251, decided on April 5.
New Jersey plaintiffs lawyer Donald Maurice Jr. said he monitored the California litigation for months before filing his lawsuit against Quick Chek. He added that a simple check of his own credit-card receipts showed a significant portion of merchants were not complying with the law. This is not something that has been hidden under a rock, said Maurice of Flemington, N.J.'s Maurice & Needleman, a firm that usually defends creditors.
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