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PARK CITY — The owners of a Park City restaurant have a legal battle brewing over credit cards that could affect merchants nationwide.
"We're right, and they're wrong," said Cissy McComb, who opened Cisero's with her husband in 1985. "But that isn't always the way the world works, especially with big banks."
Next week, the McCombs expect to fill Cisero's dining rooms during the Sundance Film Festival. They're ready for the crowds, and excited about the infusion of energy that transforms the town for ten days.
"My livelihood is the restaurant business," Cissy McComb said. "I have to accept credit cards in my restaurant in order to survive."
The film festival whips up their best business of the year. But behind the scenes, the McCombs are locked in a court battle with their credit card processor, Elavon, which is a unit of U.S. Bancorp.
As we sat at a table with a clean, white tablecloth in the back dining room of their restaurant Wednesday, Cissy and Steve McComb detailed a credit card processing ordeal that started nearly four years ago. The Italian restaurant on Main Street was accused by its bank of mishandling credit card data, and thus exposing clients' accounts to fraud in the range of $1.3 million.
The owners argue they did nothing wrong, and they decided to fight back rather than pay fines that threatened to ruin their business.
"We are in a fight for our lives," Cissy McComb said.
In March 2008, Elavon representatives called and said there had been a security breach in Cisero's computer system. Specialists, approved by the credit card processor, found no evidence of a breach in two separate reviews.
"We thought that was the end of it," Cissy McComb said.
But it wasn't. Visa slapped them with a fine of $5,000. Then both Visa and MasterCard hit them with more fines that totaled $60,000.
"Near the end of 2008, the credit card processor, Elavon started sucking money out of my accounts," Cissy McComb said.
The McCombs say the withdrawals began without any sort of notification. They say they had a great relationship with their local branch of the bank until this trouble started.
"You assume your money is safe in your bank, and every day they're wiping it clean," Steve McComb said.
Elavon sued Cisero's — also naming Cissy McComb as a defendant — claiming they owed more than $82,000 for their negligence.
Cissy McComb says the bank treated them like criminals, so they got their own lawyers.
"This just isn't right, and it needs to stop," said David Olsen, the couple's attorney.
Olsen said he isn't aware of another case quite like this in which a bank and credit card processor has sued one of its merchants.
"You rely upon a bank to protect and safeguard your money," he said. "This bank, this institution went in and drained their accounts without telling them."
KSL News contacted U.S. Bancorp in Minneapolis. Company representatives said they cannot comment on the case because it is in litigation.
"People have gone out of business due to this kind of robbery from acquiring banks," said Cissy McComb, "so we're trying to fight the fight for us and everybody else."
The restaurateurs hope their case helps resolve ongoing credit issues between banks and merchants. "Every day, it's what you think about," Cissy McComb said.
Over the last few years, they have worried about the livelihood of their 200 employees, in the event that this ordeal would force them to close. But Cisero's has a new credit card processor and bank, and there's no evidence any customers' accounts were ever at risk.
The McCombs believe they will prevail in court, but it won't be a short fight. "It's very emotional, it truly is, and it's difficult," Cissy McComb said.
