Visa Inc. sued Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in a bid to stop the world’s largest retailer from bringing price-fixing claims over merchant swipe fees.
Wal-Mart is among more than 7,000 retailers that dropped out of a multibillion-dollar settlement with Visa and MasterCard over the fees, which are charged to merchants when consumers pay with credit cards. In a complaint made public June 14 in a New York federal court, Visa said it wants to prevent “the continuation of endless, wasteful litigation between the parties.”
“Put simply, Visa seeks finality in its dispute with Wal-Mart,” the Foster City, Calif.-based credit card firm said in the complaint. read more »
PR Newswire
REDMOND, Wash. - In a coordinated operation, Microsoft Corp., in cooperation with leaders in the financial services industry and other technology industry partners, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced recently it has successfully disrupted more than a thousand botnets that are responsible for stealing people’s online banking information and personal identities.
The FBI took coordinated separate steps related to the operation. Botnets are networks of compromised computers infected by malicious software to be controlled by cybercriminals known as botherders. This cooperative action is part of a growing proactive effort by both the public and private sector to fight cybercrime, help protect people and businesses from online fraud and identity theft, and enhance cloud security for everyone. read more »
The Bremerton Chamber of Commerce will feature a presentation at its monthly lunch meeting June 18 on how the new health care law will affect businesses.
Guest speaker Matthew Heikkala is from Bell Anderson Insurance, and is an expert on the Affordable Health Care Act. He has a very informative presentation about how it will affect your business.
The lunch will be at 11:30 a.m. at Kitsap Golf and Country Club. Register online at bremertonchamber.org. Those who register by June 12th will receive the Early Bird Special and save $4.
OLYMPIA — The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has filed a lawsuit to recover the costs of fighting the Taylor Bridge Fire that started Aug. 13, 2012. The lawsuit is against Conway Construction Co. and Rainier Steel, Inc. Conway Construction was working under contract with the Washington State Department of Transportation, and Rainier Steel, Inc. was a subcontractor.
“Negligence put the public in danger of this fast-moving wildfire,” said Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Goldmark. “DNR will make every effort to hold all responsible parties to full account for the Taylor Bridge Fire’s cost.” read more »
The Electronic Frontier Foundation
A report first published in the British newspaper the Guardian confirmed that the National Security Agency (NSA) is currently collecting the call records of every Verizon customer in America. The NSA order forces Verizon to provide “on an ongoing daily basis” all call records for any call “wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls” and any call made “between the United States and abroad.”
And that’s not all. On June 7, the Washington Post and the Guardian published reports based on information provided by a career intelligence officer showing how the NSA and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies. The government is extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person’s movements and contacts over time. read more »
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A bill that would keep federally subsidized student loan rates from doubling in July fell short of the votes needed to move it forward for debate in the U.S. Senate. The vote June 6 on advancing the Student Loan Affordability Act of 2013 was 51-46, short of the 60 votes needed to move to debate.
If Congress fails to act, student loan interest rates will double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on July 1. According to the U.S. Department of Education, that would impact 104,863 students in Washington state who carry more than $390 million in subsidized Stafford Loans. The Project on Student Debt reports that Washington state college seniors who graduated in 2011 had an average of $22,244 in student loan debt. read more »
Apple will appear before a federal court this week in a stubborn quest to defend its name and beat down charges that it led a conspiracy to inflate e-book prices.
And as Apple fiercely protects its own image, the company will work to sully the reputation of its rival Amazon.com.
The Justice Department filed suit against Apple and five book publishers in April 2012, accusing them of price fixing in an effort to outflank Amazon in the market for e-books. All five publishers have settled with the government, but Apple has forged on to trial.
Amazon is not implicated in the Justice Department’s suit, but it will be dragged into what is expected to be a prolonged and nasty court battle, analysts say. read more »
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Some of the country’s largest retailers, including Target Corp. and Macy’s Inc., filed a lawsuit May 23 against MasterCard and Visa, rejecting a settlement reached last year over alleged fee-fixing.
A larger group of 19 trade associations and retail companies originally filed suit against the card processing companies in 2005, claiming that they conspired to fix the fees they charge stores for handling payments made with credit cards.
A $7.2 billion settlement was reached last July, but some of the retailers rejected it, partially because it includes a provision barring retailers from filing future lawsuits over swipe fees. Some retailers also have argued that the settlement amount was far less than what they deserved and might have won at trial. read more »
U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.) introduced legislation this week that will help the Department of Defense and private industry by strengthening lines of communication. The Information Technology Exchange Program (ITEP) Act of 2013, a bipartisan bill sponsored with Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK), would continue a program that allows employees from the private sector or academia to temporarily work for the Department of Defense, and Defense employees to work in the private sector. This will help the DOD to modernize and protect the nation’s information technology infrastructure and will help benefit private industry and academic institutions when developing tools and products to make lasting and significant contributions to the national defense. read more »
