RSSNew York to get cash from Symantec and Mcafee
By Tim Conneally | Published June 11, 2009, 10:08 AM
Yesterday, the New York Attorney General's office announced a settlement effectively closing the investigation of McAfee's and Symantec's automatic antivirus subscription renewal practices. Several New Yorkers complained that they had purchased the software online, only to later have their subscription automatically renewed without their knowledge or consent.
In the settlement, McAfee and Symantec have to pay a combined $750,000 to the state of New York, and improve the visibility of their subscription terms and renewal policies so customers won't be caught unawares by recurring charges on their credit cards. This will involve notifying customers both before and after renewal of the subscription and offering a 60 day grace period for refunds.
"Companies cannot play hide the ball when it comes to the fees consumers are being charged. Consumers have a right to know what they are paying, especially when they are unwittingly agreeing to renewal fees that will not appear on their credit card bill for months," Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said yesterday.
Andrew Cuomo has been a strong presence on the consumer technology front, taking some of the biggest companies to task for their business practices. In his two years on the job, Cuomo has stepped in against Dell for its financing practices, Verizon for its EV-DO bandwidth caps, and Intel for abuse of market dominance. Perhaps most prominent of all has been Cuomo's crackdown on Usenet groups trading child pornography.
I AM A KOREA WAR VETERAN AND I USE MY COMP-UTER TO HELP OTHER VETERANS. I BEEN USING NORTON SOFTWARE IN MY COMPUTER AND FOR YEARS THEY RENEWED MY NORTON SOFTWARE BEFORE THE SUBSCRIPTION WAS UP. IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO GET A LIVE PERSON. LAST YEAR I COULD TAKE IT NO LONGER AND I FILLED OUT A COMPLAINT REPORT WITH THE CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL. I WAS OFFERED SOME FREE SOFTWARE FOR MY TROUBLE. I HAD TO CONTINUE MY COMPUTER WORK WITH MY VETERAN GROUP SO I ACCEPTED THE SOFTWARE. FROM WHAT I SEE THE PRACTICE OF BILLING A PERSONS CREDIT CARD BEFORE THE SUBSCRIPTION IS UP AND WITHOUT PERMISSION IS AGAINST THE LAW AND I AM GLAD THAT THE NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL WENT AFTER THEM. HAVE A GREAT WEEK. IRWIN
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|I agree on reading the EULA, but in the small small print is where they get you. Snap Fitness if good for that. My wife signed up for a free month and when the bill came for the second month it was automatically taken out from the credit card that they say they need just in case you break something. She went to cancel and they told her that the only way out of the contract was to move 20 miles away from a snap fitness or get a doctor’s note. But even then you have to fight to get in contact with them.
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|Ridiculous ruling. What the hell is the EULA for? Since when is ignorance a defence?
Any software maker should now be really worried.
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|Ex-Brit must have not tried to get loose from an AOL account...
No matter how much you tried, AOL kept their strangle hold of you and your credit card account. It finally took government intervention to get AOL hip tossed to the ground.
Anyway, good for for NY AG Cuomo..... I agree that we need more AG's with steel spines....
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|you know, a lot has to be said for the new york attorney general.
only if the rest of the country had attorney generals that were just as pro active, instead of sitting around doing nothing as state employee's are known to do.
if so, then the settlement that new york ascertained could be multiplied by 49 for the other states.
perhaps, if the ftc was earning their pay then they would fine the software makers on a national level.
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|This is good to know. Any company which automatically signs a customer up for auto-renewal of any fee should be required to CLEARLY, not in the small text at the bottom of a page which requires 8 clicks to get to, disclose this to the consumer.
+1 for consumer rights
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