Finextra: Heartland threatens rivals over PCI compliance claims

Heartland Payment Systems is threatening legal action against competitors it says are misleading merchant customers with claims they will be penalized for doing business with the processor after it was struck off Visa's list of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliant service providers.

Earlier this month Visa removed Heartland, along with RBS WorldPay, from its list of PCI DSS compliant service providers following major data breaches that put the card details of millions of people at risk.

The move prompted confusion among merchants concerned they may judged to be non compliant for using the two payments processors and therefore open to fines.

However, Gartner analyst Avivah Litan says she has received a statement from Visa confirming merchants can continue doing business with the two firms without threat of penalty charges.

This stance will remain valid as long as Heartland and RBS continue to work towards revalidating their PCI compliance, which they are expected to complete within weeks.

"Visa clearly did not want to risk putting the processors out of business, partly because of the potentially enormous disruption to their hundreds of thousands of merchant customers," says Litan.

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