Citation[]
U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, Supplemental Report on Aggressive Sales Tactics on the Internet (May 19, 2010) (full-text).
Overview[]
This supplemental report provides information about what happened to millions of consumers after they were "enrolled" in membership clubs as a result of the deceptive sales tactics employed by Affinion, Vertrue, Webloyalty, and their online partners. It describes the multiple barriers consumers faced when they realized — often after being billed for many months — that they had inadvertently enrolled in the clubs and sought to cancel their memberships and receive refunds. It details the basic two-step business model all three companies followed: 1) use deceptive sales tactics to charge consumers' credit and debit card accounts, and 2) after consumers discover the unauthorized charges, refund as little of their money as possible.