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04/01/2015

Orbital Publishing Group accused of circulation fraud

From The New York Times

Top prosecutors in several states accused an Oregon company on Tuesday of overcharging consumers for subscriptions to newspapers, magazines and other periodicals.

The Orbital Publishing Group, a periodical subscription service, is facing accusations that it charged consumers as much as twice the cost of a subscription and pocketed the difference, according to state attorneys general in New York, Oregon, Minnesota, Missouri and Texas.

Many of the victims appeared to be elderly, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan.

A lawyer for Orbital, David P. Lennon, said in an email that he had not yet reviewed the complaint.

The lawsuit accused Orbital and a group of interconnected companies of sending millions of unauthorized solicitations to consumers around the country.

The lawsuit contends that, after the companies received customers’ orders for magazines or newspapers, the companies bought subscriptions through the publishers for the normal retail value and kept the difference in price.

For example, the companies were accused of charging $599.95 instead of $413 for a year’s subscription to The Wall Street Journal, and 30 to 40 percent more than the actual price of a subscription to The New York Times, according to the complaint.

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