COMMON TO ALL COUNTS
Preacquired Account Marketing
5. Preacquired account marketing is a widespread and problematic marketing practice whereby a consumer gives private billing information to a business for the purpose of purchasing a good or service from that business only; however, the consumer’s billing information is then passed to a third party who utilizes it to place charges on the consumer’s account for unrelated products. The “merchant partner” who originally acquired the billing information is paid a fee by the third party for every set of information it passes. This sharing of consumer information is commonly referred to as a “data pass.”
6.in a majority of instances, consumers do not consent to the sharing of their information in this manner, and are more often than not completely unaware that a merchant has transferred their information to a third party.
7. Following the data pass, consumers are commonly enrolled in a membership program or “loyalty club” by the third party with a recurring monthly subscription. Any possible benefits that exist from the membership programs are rarely realized because the overwhelming majority of consumers are unaware they have been enrolled in these clubs and/or programs in the first instance. Third party sellers and their merchant partners are completely aware of the deceptive nature of this business model.
8. However, even after thousands of complaints, a variety of preacquired marketing continues to plague consumers.
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