(Magilla Marketing)—A California man has filed a class-action suit against AOL for allegedly including text e-mail ads in the footers of paid subscribers’ outgoing messages.

Filed by Encino, CA-based Hamner Law Offices on behalf of Frank Cecchini, the suit claims AOL wrongly inserted the ads in outgoing e-mail from 2 million paid subscribers, or 20% of AOL’s e-mail users.

For the full story

A California man has filed a class-action suit against AOL for allegedly including text e-mail ads in the footers of paid subscribers’ outgoing messages.

Filed by Encino, CA-based Hamner Law Offices on behalf of Frank Cecchini, the suit claims AOL wrongly inserted the ads in outgoing e-mail from 2 million paid subscribers, or 20% of AOL’s e-mail users.

The suit claims that nowhere in AOL’s terms of service does it say ads will appear in paying subscribers’ messages.

“As such, AOL pay e-mail subscribers expect the ability to send out e-mail without advertisements inserted into their e-mail,” the suit claims. “This is different from e-mail services provided by so-called free e-mail accounts (such as Hotmail.com and Yahoo.com) which do insert various advertisements into sent e-mails.”

The complaint continues: “Unlike ‘banner’ advertisements or other overt Internet advertisements, these footers, or ad tags, essentially add to and/or change the actual message contained in the e-mail.”

As a result, AOL users who don’t want ads inserted into their messages choose the premium service, the complaint said.

In 2006, according to the complaint, “AOL unilaterally, and without seeking or obtaining any permission from its pay subscribers, began inserting ad tags directly after the senders’ e-mail.”

The ads included pitches for AOL products and those of business partners, such as Mapquest, the complaint alleges.

Moreover, the complaint alleges, since the ads are inserted after subscribers hit “send,” AOL users aren’t immediately aware their messages contain ads.

“The vast majority, if not all, of the e-mails sent by AOL pay e-mail subscribers since about June of 2006 include an ad tag inserted at the end of the message,” the complaint alleges. “This action is wholly inconsistent with AOL’s terms of service and is in direct conflict with the reasonable expectations of AOL’s pay e-mail subscribers.”

The complaint also alleges AOL illegally inserted ads at the end of more than 100 million customer e-mails and profited “substantially” from them.

The suit accuses AOL of fraud, unjust enrichment, unlawful business practices under California law and breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.

The suit calls for a jury trial and a preliminary injunction barring AOL from inserting ads in the footers of paying subscribers’ outgoing messages. The suit also calls for unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, attorney fees and court costs.

AOL did not immediately respond to a request for comment.