Judge Preliminarily Authorizes Settlement In Heartland Payment Systems Case

On October 4, Judge Anne Thompson of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey preliminarily approved a $2.5 million settlement agreement in a proposed class action suit against Heartland Payment Systems.

The agreement would settle a lawsuit, filed by plaintiff Rudel Corporation, which alleges that Heartland charged its customers unauthorized fees to process American Express card transactions and in so doing, breached the contract and an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing between the parties.

Heartland processes credit, debit, and prepaid card payments for merchants.  Rudel owns and operates Jacala Mexican Restaurant in San Antonio, Texas, and contracted with Heartland to process credit card transactions made at the restaurant.