NextClick settles false-marketing charges

NextClick Media, Kenneth Chan and Albert Chen will pay $315,000 to resolve allegations they sold "bogus smoking cessation patches" and illegally debited consumers' bank accounts, the Federal Trade Commission announces Nov. 9. The defendants allegedly failed to tell consumers they would automatically charge them up to $99.95 monthly for products unless they cancelled if they accepted a "free" 10-day trial of various herbal products, including smoking cessation patches Nicocure, Stop Smoking 180 and Zero Nicotine (1"The Tan Sheet" May 12, 2008). The settlement is the latest in an FTC crackdown on negative-option marketing (2"The Tan Sheet" Feb. 16, 2009)