A federal judge who ruled in July that billing company Alyon Technologies had no criminal intent and should not be prohibited from billing, collecting, or trying to collect from past consumers, issued a clarifying order saying likewise in late October. But the company also wants the Federal Trade Commission to retract a July announcement that it rejected the original July ruling.
The dispute arose after NBC17.com, the Website for a Baltimore television station, reported local consumer complaints accusing Alyon of continuing to bill or try collecting payments on adult Internet services for which these consumers told the station they never asked.
"(T)he FTC argues that the July 10 order should have stopped (Alyon) from billing, collecting, or attempting to collect from consumers for services provided prior to the time (Alyon) implemented their new practices and procedures…Indeed, the order did not prohibit (Alyon) from billing, collecting, or attempting to collect from past consumers," wrote federal judge R.W. Story in Georgia in his October clarifying ruling.
"Instead, the order set forth the parameters under which defendants may continue to conduct these activities – by use of the dispute resolution mechanism defendants had already implemented," the ruling continued.
Alyon also accuses NBC17.com of misquoting company spokesman Hugh Mansfield on Alyon's very tiny margin of online billing error. The Website had tied the comments to dialup billing instead of regular online billing as Mansfield had originally discussed.
"A public relations firm representing Alyon says not all online billing systems are 100 percent accurate," the Website wrote, introducing the Mansfield comment, "saying in part, 'Nobody bats a thousand. We have a 1 to 1½ percent margin of error. We are a legitimate organization and are not out to gouge anyone'."
"The preamble to the quote is incorrect, and the reporter has substantiated my claim," Mansfield told AVN.com November 5. "I was not speaking about dialups, I was talking about online billing in general, in that it's not 100 percent accurate in any way, shape, or form. (The reporter) said he knew I didn't say that because I never addressed (the dialups).
"We're not in the business of trying to collect money from people who are wrongfully billed," Mansfield continued. "I think if you talk to any online billing company that you will always find that there are situations that, for whatever reasons, people get a wrong bill. It's commonplace. It's online, it's offline, it exists with all billing companies."
NBC17.com referred among others to a 14-year-old boy who had claimed to get an Alyon popup while moving from the Cartoon Network Website to the Nickelodeon Website and, thinking the popup belonged to a Nickelodeon online game, clicked "yes," resulting in a $639.69 bill to his mother.
Alyon chief executive officer Stephane Touboul told AVN.com the company eliminates charges confirmed to have been incurred by the online activity of a minor.
"If a customer tells us by filing an affidavit that the connection was done by a minor," Touboul said, "Alyon would wipe out the charges, which is what we have done literally, with hundreds and maybe thousands of customers. If someone says my 14-year-old accessed, they can go to our Website and download the affidavit; or, contact us and we can mail it to them. And they can sign it."
Touboul said Alyon has been doing that in such instances since June. The company came under court order at that time to disclose sale terms and verify the person they are billing is the actual intended user of the services in question.
Alyon also said its company counsel wrote the FTC in late October saying it is "imperative that the FTC take appropriate measures to…ensure that its correction and retraction notice is circulated in the same manner and through the same media outlets as its previous incorrect press release." Touboul said there was another letter going forth this week from Alyon's attorney to the FTC attorneys handling Alyon cases.
"Basically, it says we have requested of them to do a retraction of the original press release after Judge Story has issued his new order," he said of that follow-up letter. "He has rejected the FTC's motion for reconsideration and clarified his original July 10 that specifically said Alyon is entitled to collect from the people who have used their services, there was no unlawful wrongdoing performed by Alyon."
