Target to pay $18.5M in lost-data suits

Target Corp. has agreed to pay $18.5 million to settle state lawsuits over a 2013 hack of its database, in which personal information of millions of customers was stolen, according to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

It’s the largest multistate accord stemming from a data breach in history, Schneiderman said Tuesday.

About 40 million credit and debit card users’ information was stolen in the breach, which occurred over two weeks in December 2013 and January 2014, and compromised the home and email addresses of as many as 70 million people.

Target later said customers were reimbursed for fraudulent charges by the card issuers, but shoppers claimed they were subjected to expensive account freezes, late payment fees and other costs.