Heartland Payment Systems has agreed to pay up to $2.4 million to settle a consumer cardholder class action suit for losses suffered following the criminal breach of its processing systems last year.
Under the terms of the settlement, Heartland says it will pay a minimum of $1 million and up to a maximum of $2.4 million to class members who submit valid claims for losses as a result of the intrusion.
The payment processor says it will also shell out $1.5 million for the cost of notice to the settling class, and $0.76 million to cover legal fees.
Heartland has additionally agreed to submit the report of an independent expert on its plans to improve the security of its computer system since the announcement of the intrusion on January 20, 2009.
Last week, Heartland agreed to a $3.6 million settlement with American Express and is currently seeking to negotiate similar settlements with other schemes.
The latest batch of settlements comes just a month after Heartland revised its third quarter results by doubling the provision - to $73.3 million - for expenses related to the massive data breach it suffered last year, when intruders crashed the company's systems and potentially compromised the card data of millions of people.