Shopper reimbursement

Home Depot has agreed to pay $19.5 million to compensate the consumers affected by the 2014 data breach which affected more than 50 million cardholders who utilized self-checkout terminals in U.S. and Canadian stores between April and September 2014. The home improvement retailer is in the process of setting up a $13 million fund to reimburse all of the shoppers for out-of-pocket losses and, in effort to improve their data security they will be hiring a chief information security officer to oversee all progress. There were at least 57 proposed class action lawsuits which were filed in U.S. and Canadian courts over the data breach.

Home Depot did not admit to any wrongdoing or liability when agreeing to the settlement while in federal court in Atlanta on Monday, March 7, 2016.

Home Depot spokesman Stephen Holmes said “We wanted to put the litigation behind us, and this was the most expeditious path, customers were never responsible for any fraudulent charges.”

Home Depot advised in November it had incurred $152 million of pre-tax expenses from the breach, after accounting for expected insurance proceeds. Legal fees and costs for the lawyers could be close to $8.7 million, court papers showed.

The case is In re: Home Depot Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia, No. 14-md-02583.

http://time.com/money/4251435/home-depot-data-breach-reimburse/