The predictable other shoe has dropped (please forgive that heel of a play on words) in the legal battle between apparel chain Genesco (NYSE: GCO) and Visa over PCI penalties, with Visa officially asking a federal judge to dismiss the retailer's lawsuit. The $2.6 billion Genesco chain, which owns Journeys, Lids and Johnston & Murphy, had been breached in 2010 and later had to reimburse its acquiring bank for about $13 million in fines charged by Visa. It sued Visa—with its acquirer's permission and blessing—saying that it hadn't violated any PCI rules.
Visa has now reacted, arguing to a federal judge that Genesco's complaint should be dismissed for three reasons. First, Visa said that Genesco cited the wrong California state law, one that cannot be used in cases where there is a contract dispute. Second, Genesco didn't claim sufficient facts to make its case. The third Visa argument was that one claim—that Visa had made fraudulent statements—wasn't valid as the statements didn't influence "consumers or the public," nor did even Genesco rely on them. (It's an interesting defense: Our lies didn't harm anyone because nobody ever believes us anyway. For the record, of course, Visa hasn't conceded that it lied, arguing that the law in question only envisioned lies that deceived the public.)
