Verizon Helps Cdiscount Secure Online Payment Card Transactions

PARIS, Jan. 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- French online retailer Cdiscount, a subsidiary of the Casino Group, has selected Verizon to help ensure that the company's electronic payment-processing platform complies with international payment card industry data-security standards. 

Cdiscount has more than 10 million registered users in France, with the company's online retail site, cdiscount.com, attracting 800,000 visitors and handling 30,000 orders each day, on average. Cdiscount processes and manages all payments via its own payment platform, which it also offers as a payment-processing provider to other companies. Compliance with PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is therefore a key business driver for Cdiscount, as it demonstrates to customers that their personal and payment information is protected.

Verizon's professional security services team provided a range of audit, management and implementation services to help Cdiscount achieve the company's first PCI DSS certification. 

Cdiscount.com's director of information systems security said: "We value the trust our customers place in us every time they shop online and take our role in protecting their personal and payment information very seriously. Verizon's expertise in this area has been invaluable, delivering a thorough and detailed approach that has enabled us to achieve our goal. PCI DSS compliance is an ongoing process for the assured security of our customers' payments and is critical for the credibility of our payment processing service. With the Verizon team's assistance, we are confident we can maintain the best possible industry standards."

The annual "Verizon Payment Card Industry Compliance Report," issued in September 2011, found that too many businesses are struggling to comply with payment card security standards, putting consumers' confidential information at risk. Company investigators found that only 21 percent were fully compliant during the initial PCI DSS audit. The report notes that the difficulty in achieving compliance, along with overconfidence, complacency and the need to focus on other compliance and security issues, are among the possible reasons for the widespread PCI noncompliance.

About Cdiscount.com
A pioneer in e-commerce, Cdiscount.com is a subsidiary of Casino and is the leading online retailer in France (euro 1 billion of net sales in 2010)[1]. The company has 1,100 employees.

Cdiscount.com offers a range of more than 100,000 products from some 20 stores: DVD, video games, IT, TV, HiFi, photo, telephony, GPS/auto, small and large appliances, sports, textiles, shoes, wine, toys and services. Cdiscount has 10 million customers. For more information please visit www.groupe-casino.fr

About Verizon
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, with more than 107 million total connections nationwide. Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers in more than 150 countries, including all of the Fortune 500. A Dow 30 company with $106.6 billion in 2010 revenues, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of more than 195,000. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

[1] As detailed in the Groupe Casino 2010 annual report available at http://www.groupe-casino.fr/IMG/pdf/AR-Casino-2011-en.pdf

SOURCE Verizon