Today is Cyber Monday, and before you get busy clicking away online, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has a warning for you.
Today, Abbott charged several "price-comparison" Web sites with unlawfully misleading online shoppers about the quality of certain Internet merchants.
The defendants promise independent, reliable Web site comparisons. State investigators discovered a cash-for-ratings scheme in which certain online retailers paid for higher rankings. The state's enforcement action comes just in time for the holiday shopping season.
According to court documents filed in two separate state enforcement actions, the defendants' price comparison listings misled potential shoppers about certain merchants' reliability and trustworthiness. While one defendant's Web sites represented themselves as neutral and unbiased, online merchants paid that defendant to render higher ratings. Today, the state filed an enforcement action against Intercept, L.L.C., which operates several price-comparison sites, including: Shopcartusa.com, Diduprice.com, Flyingprices.com, Digitalsaver.com and Pricingdepot.com. That legal action led to an agreed judgment wherein Intercept promised to correct its unlawful practices and either pay a $300,000 civil penalty or cease doing business at the end of November.
A separate enforcement action named Everyprice.com Inc., which operates the Web sites Everyprice.com and Lowpricedigital.com, for similar infractions.
According to state investigators, Everyprice.com was not only paid for high ratings, but it allowed questionable merchants to create their own specialized endorsements for an additional fee. And although Intercept received numerous customer complaints about specific "endorsed" merchants, the defendant continued to rate them as "top sellers" that offered the "lowest legitimate prices." The defendants used Google, Yahoo and MSN to advertise its Web sites worldwide. The state's enforcement action against Everyprice.com seeks civil penalties of up to $20,000 per violation of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act, plus appropriate attorneys' fees. The state also seeks restitution where necessary to address financial injury to the Web sites' users.
Abbott warns that "Texans should be wary and carefully consider their sources, because some Web sites may not be providing the unbiased ratings they promise."
Texans who believe they have been deceived by similar fraudulent business practices may call the Office of the Attorney General's toll-free complaint line at (800) 252-8011 or file a complaint online at www.texasattorneygeneral.gov.
