Mastercard Escapes Wawa Suit Over $10 Million Data-Breach Charge

Mastercard International Inc. defeated most of a lawsuit filed by Wawa Inc. over a $10.7 million liability assessment arising from a 2019 data breach that exposed the payment-card data of millions of customers of the convenience-store chain.

Mastercard’s imposition of the assessment against Wawa’s acquiring bank, Bank of America NA, was proper because Wawa didn’t qualify for the safe-harbor provisions against data-breach liability that were included in Mastercard’s contracts with banks and merchants, Judge Nelson S. Roman of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York said Wednesday.

Roman granted Mastercard’s motion to dismiss but gave Wawa ...