San Francisco – Averting a looming court battle over how it has been handling the exodus from its Internet dial-up service, AOL has agreed to make it easier for its remaining customers to leave as part of a $3 million settlement with 48 states and the District of Columbia.
The resolution announced Wednesday was driven by a deluge of complaints from AOL customers who said they tried to close their accounts, only to be thwarted in their attempts or discover they were still being billed for services that they thought had been canceled.
The outcry triggered a multistate investigation that would have culminated in a lawsuit if AOL hadn’t agreed to ante up and to change its ways, said David Tiede, a deputy attorney general in California.
California was among the states that played a leading role in the settlement.
AOL, the Internet division of Time Warner Inc., didn’t acknowledge any wrongdoing in the settlement.
The Dulles, Va.-based company said the investigation involved a tiny fraction of the cancellation requests that it has fielded through the years.
