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Violate FACTA, Pay With A Fruit Cup

Written by Evan Schuman
May 23rd, 2009

As part of a settlement for having violated the federal Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) by leaving too many payment card numbers on printed receipts, the 670-store Italian restaurant chain Olive Garden is giving consumer victims vouchers for $9 appetizers. But they are going out of their way to point the finger of blame at their POS vendor.

Granted, offering coupons good for just an appetizer sounds more like something that the chain’s marketing department would pay for than a punishment, but to the extent that there is any shame involved, Olive Garden issued a statement that it wasn’t their fault, but it also refused to identify the POS vendor involved. “We at Olive Garden take our guests’ data and our legal obligations very seriously. There was a mistake in a vendor-supplied system that produced receipts for the sole use of individual guests,” said the chain’s communications director, Mark Jaronski. “The problem was promptly remedied when it was brought to our attention and there is no indication that anyone has been harmed in any way by this error.”

Posted in Payment Systems, Security/Fraud
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