BOSTON – In a potentially precedent-setting move, Massachusetts lawmakers will consider a bill that would make merchants pay for losses when hackers and thieves breach their security systems to take consumers' credit-card and other financial information, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Currently, banks are the ones who reimburse consumers for credit-card fraud losses, which came to more than $2 billion last year. If approved, the Massachusetts measure would hold any company--retailer, bank or data processor--financially liable if it is an operator of the hacked system.

Sponsored by Rep. Michael Costello, the bill would instruct that companies whose security systems are broken in to assume full responsibility for any fraud-related losses, costs associated with the canceling and reissuing of cards, and in cases of identity theft, the freezing of accounts and credit information, the newspaper said.

The bill would apply to any company conducting business in Massachusetts, regardless of where it is based. The bill leaves out other kinds of credit-card fraud, such as those pertaining to lost or stolen cards.

In other credit-card news, the first commercial that promotes MasterCard Worldwide’s PayPass aired last night during the 79th Annual Academy Awards, reports Marketing Daily. Also, the credit-card company posted exclusively on Priceless.com five vignettes, which feature celebrities using the PayPass card.

Entitled “Ella Phant,” the 60-second commercial spot stars an elephant and is intended to how easy and safe the contact-free payment method is. After developing the technology, MasterCard now licenses it to both Visa and American Express. More than 13 million PayPass cards or devices are in the marketplace, and consumers can swipe them at 46,000 locations worldwide, including 7-Eleven, McDonald's and CVS.