Back in 2007, Xconomy ran a story by freelance contributor Seth Shulman about a class-action lawsuit unfolding against Norwalk, CT-based Webloyalty, an online marketing company. The comment section of that story became something of a clearinghouse for ongoing complaints against Webloyalty, which runs many of the discount programs pitched to consumers as they are finishing e-commerce transactions.
If you’ve ever bought a movie ticket online at Fandango or Movietickets.com and then been offered a $10 rebate, you might well have seen a Webloyalty offer. The problem—as scads of consumers alleged to Xconomy, the Connecticut Better Business Bureau, the New York Times, and other organizations—was that by accepting such rebate offers, many people unwittingly signed up for discount programs that carry a $10 monthly subscription price, fees that customers often didn’t notice on their credit card bills until months or years later.
Well, now there’s finally something for Webloyalty’s critics to be happy about. On June 30, a federal judge in Boston approved a settlement agreement in a class-action lawsuit alleging that Webloyalty broke state and federal laws by failing to disclose details such as the monthly charges. Webloyalty maintains that the details about its charges have always been clear in the fine print and in the follow-up e-mails it sends to subscribers, and it admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement. But under the terms of the settlement—which went into effect on August 14—the company agreed to change the way it markets its programs, and to partially or fully refund Webloyalty members for each program in which they were enrolled. (That includes programs known as Reservation Rewards, Shoppers Discounts & Rewards, Members Specials, Buyer Assurance, Distinctive Privileges, PC Protection Plus, Travel Values, Travel Values Plus, Classmates Rewards, and Wallet Shield.)
Up to 20 million people who joined Webloyalty’s programs between September 30, 2000, and September 30, 2008, will be eligible for the refunds, according to David George, a plaintiff’s attorney in the suit quoted in “The Haggler,” the New York Times’ consumer-protection column. If you’re one of these people, you can’t dally too long: members of the settlement class (meaning any U.S.-based Webloyalty subscriber who didn’t explicitly opt out of the settlement before May 29, 2009) must submit claim forms by January 11, 2010, to get their payments, according to this website created by Garden City Group, a Melville, NY, company that specializes in administering class-action settlements.
In comments to Xconomy, Beth Kitchener, Webloyalty’s vice president of corporate communications, said “we fully support the judge’s decision” to approve the settlement agreement. “Given that the settlement terms are consistent with our commitment to maintaining high standards in our marketing and customer service practices, we believed it to be in the best interests of our company, our clients and our members to resolve this matter and move forward,” Kitchener said.
It’s hard to gauge what material effect the settlement will ultimately have on Webloyalty. If all 20 million members of the settlement class were to apply for payments of $10 or $20, that could translate into a hit of $200 million to $400 million. But “the actual amount of payments is dependent on
