A lawsuit was filed in federal court in Boston against the marketing services company Webloyalty.com for consumer fraud. The suit alleges that Webloyalty charged unwitting customers of major online retailers for memberships in a discount program that had no real benefits.
The suit relates to a program in which the Norwalk, Conn.-based Webloyalty.com used a popup window offering discount coupons on future purchases. This window then collected credit card information from companies whose consumers entered their e-mail addresses for the coupons.
Webloyalty billed the consumers for monthly membership fees of $9 or $10 for which they got no benefit, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit claims Webloyalty kept the fees and paid its retailer clients a fee for each customer who "signed up" for the discount membership.
Consumers were unaware they were being charged, as emails that informed consumers that they would have to cancel the program within 30 days if they wanted to avoid a monthly charge were usually ignored as spam, or shut out by spam blockers, the suit alleges.
"The lawsuit is frivolous. It completely misrepresents the manner in which Webloyalty.com conducts its business," Rick Fernandes, the company's founder and chief executive said in a statement. "We intend to vigorously defend ourselves and expect to prevail."
The consumers were customers of such companies as Staples.com, Petco.com, Priceline.com, and FTD.com, the lawsuit says.
Leave a comment