SurfSafe vendor, Washington state settle suit for $1M
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(InfoWorld) - The operator of two computer privacy services has agreed to pay up to $1 million in refunds to customers to settle charges of using deceptive marketing techniques and selling the customer's personal information. Consumer Digital Services, which sold the Privasafe and SurfSafe software and services, has agreed to pay $300,000 in fines and legal fees and offer refunds to Washington state consumers who were billed for their products, according to Katherine Tassi, assistant attorney general for Washington. Terms of the settlement were outlined in a consent decree filed Thursday in King County Superior Court in Seattle. Consumer Digital Services is controlled by Gary Salmirs, of Fort Lee, New Jersey, who is also named in the settlement. The state alleges that the company violated state consumer protection laws, but neither Salmirs nor the company admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement, Tassi said. According to her, the company lured customers with offers of free gift cards, flat-screen monitors, andÂ software, promoted through pop-up ads and e-mail. Customers handed over personal informationÂ such asÂ addresses, telephone numbers, and dates of birth, thinking that they were getting a free product. "What they actually were doing was signing up for a paid service," Tassi said. Thousands of consumers received unexpected $14.95-per-month charges for the company's software and services, and almost nobody got a free gift card or flat-screen monitor. "Our investigation showed that only one of the over 13,000 Washington consumers ever actually got this free item," Tassi said. Consumers didn't have to hand over credit card information in order to be billed because the charges were tacked on to regular monthly telephone bills, she added. Last year, the Florida attorney general investigated a company called Email Discount Network for engaging in similar billing practices, Tassi said. Consumer Digital Services took its Web sites offline sometime during the past month, Tassi said. But according to cached copies of these sites, the company said that its products would remove spyware, protect consumers against "unscrupulous marketers," make Internet surfers anonymous, and even boost connection speeds. In fact, the "exact opposite" occurred, Tassi said. "They actually were compiling a huge database of consumer information that could be used for marketing purposes," she said. This data was eventually sold to marketing companies, she added. Washington state residents who were billed for Privasafe or SurfSafe products since Jan. 1, 2004, can get their money refunded and will be contacted by Consumer Digital Services. The company could not be reached immediately for comment.
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International Business Machines Corp.  has settled for an undisclosed sum part of a potentially multi-billion-dollar lawsuit over its pension plan, a Wednesday court filing shows.
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The DuPont Co. agreed to a settlement potentially worth more than $340 million Thursday to resolve allegations the chemical giant contaminated drinking water in West Virginia
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California lawyers who reached a $1.1 billion class-action settlement with Microsoft will get less than half the legal fees they requested.
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A settlement of an inquiry into Lillyâs marketing of the antipsychotic drug Zyprexa could result in the company paying more than $1 billion to federal and state governments.
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A class-action lawsuit that alleged Microsoft Corp. overcharged consumers was settled Wednesday for an undisclosed amount.
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The award for fees and costs comes in a case in which Microsoft agreed to allocate $1.1 billion for California consumers. By Associated Press.
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(InfoWorld) - Washington's attorney general has settled the first case prosecuted under the state's 2005 Computer Spyware Act. The settlement. announced Monday, is with antispyware vendor Secure Computer LLC. The White Plains, New York, software companyÂ was accused of marketing its product via deceptive spam and pop-up ads, which offered free spyware scans that always detected a problem with the computer that was scanned. The company and its president, Paul Burke, will pay $725,000 in legal fees and $200,000 in penalties, and will reimburse Washington state customers $75,000, said Paula Selis, senior council with the attorney general's office. "Given the scope of the defendants' practices and the amount of consumer harm out there, we feel this is a very fair settlement." More than 1,100 state residents purchased the company's Spyware Cleaner software since it went on the market in 2004, Selis said. Those customers will now be e-mailed by Secure Computer and offered a refund for the $49.95 product, under terms of the settlement. Secure Computer, which admits no wrongdoing in the matter, is also prohibited from usingÂ deceptive marketing techniquesÂ to promote its software, and the company must now review the advertising of its marketing affiliates to make sure they comply with the settlement. That seems like an unlikely possibility, however, because Spyware Cleaner was pulled from the market shortly after the lawsuits were filed in late January, and Secure Computer LLC is now out of business, according to the company's Web site. Representatives from Secure Computer could not be reached for comment. Secure Computer and four of its business partners were sued by Microsoft and the Washington attorney general in January, but charges against three of the men have already been settled. A fourth man, Manoj Kumar of Maharashtra, India, could not be located, the attorney general's office said. Â
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By Paul Sisson, North County Times, Escondido, Calif.  Mar. 8--OCEANSIDE, Calif. -- The city official estimated Wednesday that  it will cost Oceanside an additional $1 million to comply with new state water  rules passed Jan. 24.
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By Mitchell Freedman, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.  Feb. 7--A $1.5-million settlement has been reached by 29 businesses and government entities with the New York State attorney general's office over the cost of cleanup at the old North Sea landfill in Southampton Town.
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The agreement settles a California civil suit over its pursuit of private phone records to trace a news leak.
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An Internet service provider in Iowa has been awarded more than $1 billion in what is believed to be the largest lawsuit judgment ever against spammers.
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The operator of two computer privacy services agrees to pay up to $1 million to settle charges of using deceptive marketing techniques and selling personal information.
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Business & money: Oil giant agrees to withhold Â£1.5m owed to former chief executive while a court case is resolved.
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The U.S. FTC has settled a complaint filed last year against a company accused of illegally selling telephone records.
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Royal Ahold NV, the Dutch retailer that overstated more than $1 billion of profits, reached a settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, ending a 20-month investigation into accounting fraud.
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Target Corp. has agreed to pay $1 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging it failed to stamp prices on merchandise, the fourth in a string of agreements over the past two years costing major retailers more than $8 million in fees and millions more in compliance measures.