Creditnet News Story
Visa partners with organizations to fight certain ecommerce practices
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
By Danielle Robson
Effort focuses on free trials with 'negative option.'
A company that makes credit card offers possible has joined with two agencies to warn consumers about certain online practices that could end up costing people money.
Visa has joined the Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau in order to alert consumers about the "free trials with a negative option feature," which some companies may use on their sites. Through this feature, ecommerce retailers may pre-click a box that gives them permission to start charging consumers once a free-trial period is over.
"Most ecommerce merchants care about their customers and conduct business fairly, but even a few bad actors can cause consumer distrust," William M. Sheedy, Visa's group president for the Americas, said.
Consumers who feel they may have fallen victim to the practice are encouraged to first contact the merchant they dealt with. If that does not resolve the problem, people should get in touch with both their card provider and the FTC.
In addition to dealing with the negative option feature on some ecommerce sites, consumers who use credit cards are entitled to other protections when it comes to purchases. According to federal law, consumers are only liable for $50 of an unauthorized charge.
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