Kevin McKeefery reports:
Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV) introduced the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, a bill that aims to curb sales tactics used by third-party online affiliates such as Affinion, Vertrue and Webloyalty.
Rockefeller introduced the bill May 19, shortly after the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation released a staff report outlining what it described as deceptive tactics used by the companies.
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According to the press release issued by the Senate committee, the bill wil protect online shoppers by:
- Prohibiting companies like Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty from using misleading post-transaction advertisements by requiring them to clearly disclose the terms of the offers to consumers, and to obtain consumers’ billing information, including full credit or debit card numbers, directly from the consumers.
- Prohibiting Internet retailers and other commercial websites (“initial merchants”) from transferring a consumer’s billing information, including credit and debit card numbers, to post-transaction third party sellers, like Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty.
- Requiring companies that use “negative options” on the Internet to meet certain minimum disclosure and enrollment requirements, so consumers will not end up paying recurring fees for goods and services they did not intend to purchase.