Texas Attorney-General Greg Abbott
ASUTIN, Texas -- Online phone directory YP Corp. will pay $2 million to businesses and organizations in 33 states in a major lawsuit alleging the groups paid for online advertisements they did not want, according to settlements announced today. The dispute centers on checks mailed to businesses that stated, in the fine print, that recipients cashing them agree to purchase advertising from YP Corp. Once the checks were cashed, businesses were allegedly charged up to $39.95 per month for services. Nationally more then 82,000 organizations deposited such checks. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott says more than 60,000 such checks were deposited in his state. Activating such checks, he added, triggered YP Corp. "to begin collecting monthly fees that were tacked onto their telephone bills or automatically withdrawn from their bank account". YP Corp. will also pay $1.9 million to the 33 states to be used for "additional reimbursement and consumer education" and $910,000 for state attorney fees and costs.