Webloyalty.com Inc. and Fandango Inc., operator of Fandango.com, yesterday filed for a summary judgment in a class-action lawsuit that accuses them of engaging in a scheme in which Fandango customers were enrolled in Webloyalty’s Reservation Rewards program without their knowledge.
“Basically, we’re saying there’s so little merit to the case, we want it thrown out before it even starts,” says Rick Fernandes, Webloyalty CEO.
The class action lawsuit, filed Sept. 11 by Fandango customer Joe W. Kuefler on behalf of a yet-to-be-determined number of customers, claims that customers were surreptitiously enrolled in Webloyalty programs after making purchases at various online retailers.
The suit alleges that the customers’ credit card information was forwarded to Webloyalty during the checkout process when shoppers submitted their e-mail address to get a $10 gift voucher for their next Fandango purchases. Webloyalty allegedly began charging customers a $10 monthly fee for membership in the discount club. Fandango received a fee for each customer that signed up for the club, the suit charges.
The suit alleges violations of the Electronic Communcations Privacy Act, unfair and deceptive acts and practices, unjust enrichment, and invasion of privacy. It asks for damages of $10,000 or $100 a day for each day of violation for each plaintiff, plus treble damages.
After Kuefler filed the suit, Webloyalty pulled his files from its database, Fernandes says. “We saw exactly how he joined and we pulled the actual web page he joined under and we saw exactly what he had done and what time he had done it and how he had done it,” he says. A copy of the web page is in Webloyalty’s and Fandango’s response to the suit.
The review of the records showed that “a lot of the claims in the lawsuit are just not true,” Fernandes says.
For example, Kuefler claims his credit card information was transferred to Webloyalty without his consent, yet a paragraph right above a box for Kuefler’s e-mail address states that by entering the address, Kuefler is authorizing Fandango to securely transfer his credit card information.
Kuefler also claims the offer wasn’t clearly stated. But the “billing details” box on the same page clearly states the terms and conditions of the offer, Fernandes says.
Webloyalty also sent Kuefler four separate e-mails concerning his enrollment in the Reservation Rewards program before charging the membership fee, Fernandes says.
“The last e-mail said ‘Your trial is about to end. If you don’t want to continue your service, here’s how to cancel it,’” he says. “He received all these e-mails, he went through all these definitive actions, so a lot of things he alleges in the lawsuit are just blatantly untrue and really misrepresent the way our business works.”
Fernandes says Webloyalty refunded Kuefler’s $10 after he called to cancel the service after receiving the first bill. “That all happened 8 months before he filed the lawsuit,” he says, adding that Webloyalty makes the cancellation process very simple. “When somebody calls to cancel, we just cancel them.”
A representative for Kuefler was unavailable for comment.
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