America Online and its CompuServe subsidiary were hit by
a complaint from Ohio's attorney general Monday, claiming that they charged
customers for Internet access services without their permission.
The complaint, filed by Ohio State Attorney General Jim
Petro, claims that the service providers failed to honor cancellation requests
from users who were on free subscription trials. Once the free trials were
over, AOL charged consumers' credit cards and bank accounts without
permission, the complaint alleges.
The complaint charges the service providers of violating
the Consumer Sales Practices Act and asks for a $25,000 penalty for each
violation.
Consumers should be able to cancel an agreement with a
business within contractual terms, knowing the business will honor the
cancellation, Petro said in a statement Monday.
In a statement released Tuesday, AOL said that it
strongly disagreed with the complaint.
"Our Terms of Service--something every member agrees to
when they sign up for the service--clearly spells out how members are billed
and how they can cancel at any time to avoid further charges," the tatement
said.
Tough Times
The complaint comes amid other legal woes for AOL, which
is currently being
investigated by both the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission for questions relating to its accounting
practices.
Furthermore, the SEC is looking into how AOL accounted
for its subscriber
numbers, alleging that it may have used a bulk subscriber program to
fatten its user rolls.
In a statement, Petro said that his office has received
over 250 complaints about the companies over the last two years. He is also
accusing AOL and CompuServe of not clearly displaying the cancellation process
on the free trial subscription.
