US retail giant Home Depot is set to pay a $25 million settlement in relation to a data breach suffered in 2014.
The incident reportedly saw the credit and debit cards of 56 million people compromised.
According to the Credit Union National Association, the data breach cost credit unions around $60 million.
A proposed settlement in relation to the incident was submitted earlier in the week, and includes a number of terms.
Any financial institution that files a valid claim will be eligible to receive a fixed payment, which is estimated to be around $2 per compromised card, and claims will not require documentation of losses.
Claims will also not be affected if compensation has already been received from another source.
Then again, financial institutions that do submit proof of their losses will be eligible for up to 60% of uncompensated losses.
The company has also agreed to pay up to $2.25 million to any organization that made a claim through a sponsor, while it has also pledged to strengthen its data security practices.
“Credit unions and their members have unfortunately borne the brunt of lax merchant data security standards,” said CUNA president and CEO Jim Nussle.
“This settlement would be a step toward making them whole again. We believe this settlement represents one of the better outcomes in data breach litigation.
“We’re hopeful credit unions will see more victories in data breach suits going forward.”
The news surrounding Home Depot comes alongside another class action suit brought by CUNA against fast food chain Wendy’s, which also suffered an alleged data breach in 2015.
Protecting data and personal information has become the focus of ever-increasing debate.
In response to this, Consumer Reports has recently announced that it has launched a new privacy and data security standard to boost consumer confidence.
