Target, Inc.

By Jeff Echols, senior director of product and solutions marketing, CommVault

Bentonville, Ark. – Wal-Mart Stores Inc. filed suit with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas suing Visa for $5 billion, alleging that the financial services company overcharges on the credit and debit card swipe fees it charges retailer.

The suit claims that Visa colluded with banks to fix swipe fees between January 2004 and November 2012, forcing it to raise prices and reduce customer service, resulting in lost retail sales.

Minneapolis – Senators John D. Rockefeller (D. - W.V.) and Richard Blumenthal (D. – Conn.) publicly criticized Target’s handling of its 2013 data breach during testimony by Target CFO John J. Mulligan in front of the Senate Commerce Committee, which Rockefeller chairs. The senators said that Target’s management did not pay attention to signals from its security software and that it is time for the retail industry to make changes.

New York -- A pair of banks has filed suit against Target Corp. and security firm Trustwave, alleging damages suffered after the retailer’s holiday season data breach and accusing Trustwave of failing to identify security gaps.

According to a report by Reuters, which cited the American Banker, Trustmark National Bank and Green Bank N.A. are seeking damages of more than $5 million and named Trustwave Holdings and Target as defendants.

Minneapolis -- The distribution of digital coupons on retailers’ websites exploded in 2013, increasing 39.5% over the previous year, according to data released by Marx, a Kantar Media company. The growth of digital coupons was followed by a 25.6% increase in retailer participation in freestanding insert (FSI) coupon promotion pages, and a 12.6% increase in total retailer feature ad pages distributed.

Los Angeles — CBRE’s nation retail investment group has announced the sale of San Antonio’s Westover Marketplace Shopping Center on behalf of Coventry Real Estate Advisors. Inland American purchased the 242,664-sq.-ft. property for an undisclosed price.

The Class A regional power center resides inside the Westover Hills master-planned development. It is 93.4% occupied.

San Mateo, Calif. – Six-in-10 (60%) of those who knew about any data breaches at notable retailers, such as Target and Neiman Marcus, hold the merchant responsible for preventing future incidents of a data breach. The “2014 Consumer Reaction to Financial Data Breaches Study” of more than 2,000 adult U.S. consumers from Feedzai and Harris Interactive also found that 43% think nothing is more aggravating than getting credit/debit card data stolen.

Walmart has extended an electronics trade-in program to the gaming category and will introduce the sale of refurbished games later this year in a move that could boost traffic to the entertainment department.