VeriFone Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: PAY) today announced that a federal court has completely rejected an effort to prevent VeriFone from offering direct support to merchant customers of Heartland Payment Systems (NYSE: HPY).
Finding that Heartland's contentions “contradict its own claims in this case,” U.S. District Judge Mary L. Cooper in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey denied, in its entirety, Heartland’s request for a preliminary injunction that sought to prevent VeriFone from communicating its offer to provide direct and free support to Heartland merchants and further rejected Heartland's assertion that VeriFone made any untrue statements.
VeriFone announced November 3 that it would provide that support to prevent any disruption to merchants after determining that pending litigation over Heartland’s alleged infringement of a VeriFone patent is likely to impact Heartland’s ability to maintain service levels with its customers. VeriFone informed Heartland that its support relationships with Heartland would terminate effective end of day December 31, 2009. VeriFone further announced on November 5 that Heartland expects its merchants to contact VeriFone for support.
In an opinion dated December 23, Judge Cooper noted that Heartland had made contradictory claims over its ability to service its clients who are using VeriFone systems. The judge said Heartland’s own assertion in its previous court filings “suggests an ongoing dependence and foreseeable adverse consequences upon withdrawal of such support.”
“We’re pleased that Judge Cooper saw fit not to block our efforts to offer continual support to Heartland’s merchants for VeriFone systems and to find our statements correct,” said Douglas G. Bergeron, the Company's Chief Executive Officer. “Despite Heartland's considerable efforts we believe the right thing to do is to ensure that those merchants do not experience any disruption or degradation in the support they receive for their VeriFone system. We are actively encouraging Heartland merchants to register for direct support with VeriFone. Alternatively, we encourage merchants to sign processing agreements with one of the many organizations currently supported by VeriFone.”
Heartland is dependent on VeriFone for updates and support to the VeriFone operating system, runtime libraries, and in most cases the payment application. After December 31, the only way for Heartland merchants to ensure ongoing support and efficient operation is to register with VeriFone by that date at https://freesupport.verifone.com.
About VeriFone Holdings, Inc. (www.verifone.com)
VeriFone Holdings, Inc. (“VeriFone”) (NYSE: PAY) is the global leader in secure electronic payment solutions. VeriFone provides expertise, solutions and services that add value to the point of sale with merchant-operated, consumer-facing and self-service payment systems for the financial, retail, hospitality, petroleum, government and healthcare vertical markets. VeriFone solutions are designed to meet the needs of merchants, processors and acquirers in developed and emerging economies worldwide.
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