McAfee sued over third-party pop-up pitches
submitted by markodonoghue on 15 April 2010
The giant security software maker McAfee is being sued over very sneaky advertising, causing customers to purchase a third-party service without consent.
Two California women named Melissa Ferrington and Cheryl Schmidt, have gone down the route of taking serous action against McAfee. Customers buying McAfee security software are reportedly confronted with a pop-up with a large "Try It Now" message during the download process. Lawyers say that users might easily think the pop-up is for McAfee's own software but is actually for a one-click internet purchase technology from Arpu, which costs $4.95 per month.
"A single click on the deceptive pop-up causes the purchase of an unwanted product from Arpu, a sale made without the knowledge or authorisation of customers, using credit/debit card billing information that they have entrusted solely to McAfee," the lawsuit charges, Computerworld reports.
Arpu's site acknowledges its relationship with McAfee. "McAfee partnered with ARPU in September 2007 with the goal of increasing their profitability by selling additional products to their customers," Arpu explains. "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."
Ferrington and Schmidt were billed each $4.95 per month from their credit card for PerfectDisk Live, an online disk defragmentation service sold by Raxco Software. The lawsuit against McAfee seeks an end to this unwanted purchase, compensation for the litigants and punitive damages. It also accuses McAfee of breaching US consumer protection laws. Schmidt claims McAfee refused to help her cancel the Arpu charge when she called to complain.
This is a major deal for McAfee because this sort of sneaky behaviour from the company could cause customers to loose trust, possibly switching over to another company such as Norton. A bad reputation can get around fairly quickly and could damage the company's reputation, even if McAfee are good at what they do.
Submitted by:
Mark O'Donoghue
Associated Links:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/14/mcafee_pop_up_lawsuit/
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