FTC clamps down on pop-up adverts
10 August 2004
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has acted against D Squared, a company that exploited a little-known Microsoft loophole to bombard PCs with unwanted pop-up ads.
The San-Diego-based firm has been banned from using the loophole in Windows Messenger to send adverts to web users.
D Squared was ironically attempting to sell pop-up blocking software by using the Windows Messenger Service feature in the Microsoft network to send the ads.
The pop-up ads reportedly appeared as frequently as every ten minutes on consumers' screens, caused consumers to lose data and work productivity, caused applications to freeze, and caused some computers to crash.
Mona S Spivack, an FTC staff attorney, said: "We alleged that they were essentially attempting to coerce consumers into buying their pop-up blocking software."
The FTC found that the ads violated US consumer protection law and D Squared has been banned from sending ads using Windows Messenger. The FTC will also monitor its business activities for the next five years.
The software company reached a settlement with the FTC. D Squared Solutions admitted no wrong-doing and received no financial penalties, but insisted it settled to avoid litigation.
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