San Jose, CA: A federal class action lawsuit has been filed against Internet security software producer McAfee, alleging that it gives customers' credit card information to an advertiser, Arpu, on the McAfee site, which uses deceptive pop-ups to get people to subscribe to Arpu's service.
The suit alleges that after customers have paid for software from McAFee, an ad appears on the webpage that looks deceptively like the rest of the McAfee page. When customers click the button on the ad they are actually signing up for Arpu's service, unbeknownst to them. Arpu reportedly offers a service that enables customers to buy things online using customers' existing credit card information that is already on file. The lawsuit alleges that McAfee customers don't find out they've subscribed to the service until they get a monthly charge for $4.95 on their credit card.
"According to Arpu, 'McAfee partnered with Arpu in September 2007 with the goal of increasing their profitability by selling additional products to their customers. Now, whenever a McAfee customer completes a purchase on McAfee.com, an ad will appear for a related product or service. Interested customers can choose to subscribe to the product or service using the billing method just entered in their recent McAfee.com purchase. This convenience to the customer streamlines the purchase flow and increases the overall conversion rate,' " the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit alleges that "all of the visual cues suggest that 'Try it Now' is a necessary step in downloading the McAfee software." Furthermore, the suit claims that McAfee has told customers that it "could not do anything about the charge," and refused to "provide any assistance in understanding the charge or finding the vendor."
The class action claims that the passing of billing information between vendors has been found to be "at odds with consumer expectation and thus deceptive and unfair," as stated by the Federal Trade Commission.
Therefore, the suit is seeking an injunction, restitution, disgorgement, damages and penalties for violations of business and consumer laws, breach of faith and unjust enrichment.
