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Woman can’t sue over website charges, says U.S. District Court

By: DOLAN MEDIA NEWSWIRES//October 18, 2011//

Woman can’t sue over website charges, says U.S. District Court

By: DOLAN MEDIA NEWSWIRES//October 18, 2011//

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By Noah Schaffer
Dolan Newswires

Online shoppers often are bombarded with special offers to join discount clubs “for just one dollar.”

The ads may be annoying, but a U.S. District Court judge has found there is no proof that they violate the law.

While trying to receive a credit report, the plaintiff signed up for membership in five different “clubs”: Matters 1-2-3, At Home Rewards+, Privacy Matters Identity, Your Savings Club and SavingsAce.

Most of the clubs charged only $1 for the first month, but then cost between $19.95 and $29.95 for additional months. When she discovered the charges, the plaintiff canceled the memberships and sued the companies behind the clubs under a theory of unjust enrichment, claiming they were marketed in a way that violated Chapter 93A.

The lawsuit could have paved the way for a larger class-action case.

But Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. granted the defendants summary judgment, saying the plaintiff was at fault for not reading the fine print.

“What is most telling is that [the plaintiff] does not contend that she read the relevant information on the landing pages that would have explicitly stated to her that she was enrolling in the new programs.

In fact, she readily admits to skipping important information on webpages, skimming her credit card bills, and deleting close to 90 percent of her daily emails without reading them,” O’Toole wrote. “Sign-up was not a default setting that a consumer had to counteract. Rather, [the plaintiff] had to take several affirmative steps to become a member of the programs: type her email address and affirmatively press ‘Yes.’ She could have, but did not, simply click ‘No Thanks’ right below the ‘Yes’ button.”

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