Pam Bondi Scores Multimillion-Dollar Settlement with Law Book Publisher over Subscription Renewals

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has announced that her office has entered a multimillion-dollar settlement with CCH Inc., a law book publisher, over allegations of automatic subscription renewals, a practice referred to as a negative option plan, without adequate disclosures. CCH will mail approximately 5,000 consumers refund notices and provide a total refund amount up to $5 million to the consumers. The attorney generals office will receive $1.4 million for investigative costs, attorney fees and future enforcement efforts.

Consumers who receive products or services that they do not recall ever ordering or subscribing to should call 1-866-9-NO-SCAM, Bondi said in a press release.

CCH Inc., through the brands Wolters Kluwer, Aspen Publishers,Loislaw.com, and Kluwer International, allegedly used negative option plans in the sales of their products. According to the attorney generals office investigation, CCH marketed its print products through trial offers and then placed customers in automatic shipment and automatic subscription renewal plans without clear and conspicuous disclosures of renewal terms.

As part of the settlement, CCH will also modify its business practices to ensure that automatic shipment plans and automatic renewal of subscriptions are entered into only after all appropriate disclosures have been provided to customers and the customers have provided affirmative consent to the terms.