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FreeFlixTix Paying FTC $900,000 For Spam
David Utter
Staff Writer
2006-03-27
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
Jumpstart Technologies received a hefty civil penalty for violating the federal CAN-SPAM Act, with the Federal Trade Commission securing a permanent prohibition on the company preventing it from committing future unlawful spam practices.
Lying to recipients and disguising marketing messages as personal emails landed Jumpstart in hot water with the FTC, which filed a lawsuit against the firm in US District Court for the Northern District of California on March 21st.
The complaint alleged Jumpstart's FreeFlixTix promotion violated the CAN-SPAM act " by disguising its commercial e-mails as personal messages, and by misleading consumers as to the terms and conditions of the promotion."
"These defendants intentionally used personal messages as a cover-up for commercial messages," Lydia Parnes, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement. "Deceptive subject lines and headers not only violate the CAN-SPAM Act, but also consumer trust."
In accepting the consent decree and paying the $900,000 civil penalty, Jumpstart is not admitting guilt of any violation. The agency provided some details of Jumpstart's actions, which prompted the lawsuit:
According to the FTC, people received six or more e-mails urging them to join FreeFlixTix, some containing advertisements for other products or services offered by Jumpstart or its partners. In many instances, the complaint alleges, the subject lines of the e-mails falsely indicated that their friend was sending them free tickets, and many people who tried to opt out of the promotion kept getting similar e-mails for weeks afterward.
The FTC's complaint also alleges that the company engaged in deceptive advertising by misleading consumers about the terms and conditions of the FreeFlixTix promotion. To qualify for a "free" movie ticket, some consumers had to submit their credit card information to one of Jumpstart's advertising partners and sign up for one of their promotions. Certain advertising partners required that consumers pay for the promotion, while others made "free" offers that had to be cancelled at a later date to avoid a charge.
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Tags: FTC, Jumpstart, FreeFlixTix |
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About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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