This weekend's
Wall Street Journal (subscription required) said some interesting things about retailers and
FedEx Corp (NYSE:
FDX).
Over 100 federal lawsuits seeking class-action status against merchants including
Wendy's International (NYSE:
WEN),
TJX Cos (NYSE:
TJX),
Rite Aid Corp (NYSE:
RAD) and Fed Ex Corp (FDX) have been filed for printing too much payment-card information on customer receipts this year alone.
TJX Co, the parent company of T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, reported in January that its computers were hacked and at least 47.5 million customers susceptible to fraud. For the following eight weeks, shares of TJX lost -15%; they have since recovered modestly.
As of December 4th, retailers will be prohibited from printing more than the last five digits of credit-card or debit-card numbers on receipts that are given to customers.
Breaking the law could result in fines as much as $1,000 per transaction.
A spokesman for Fed Ex Kinko's, the Fed Ex unit involved in the lawsuit, denied the charges by saying expiration dates were never identified as an item that could "compromise cardholder security."
Now, to some people this might make sense, but to me I have to scream foul against the claims made against FedEx. Does having one's credit-card expiration date on a receipt make you vulnerable to fraud and identity theft?
I'll stick my neck out on this one folks and say no.
My Discover card expires in May of 2010. Try to get something from that.
MOST NOTEWORTHY: AU Optronics (AUO), RightNow Tech (RNOW), Alaska Air (ALK), Nordstrom (JWN), Gap (GPS) and Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL) were today's noteworthy upgrades: 
Why do we have a weak dollar?
Holiday hiring slow for retailers
Closing Bell: What sell-off? (AIG, ABK, EPR, MBI, JAVA, ORCL, ERTS)
