UPDATE August 19, 2014―The New York Times Co. was dismissed from a putative class action in New York federal court claiming it was involved in a subscription fraud scheme orchestrated by an outside vendor.
Co-defendants Dow Jones & Co. and Forbes, Inc. remain in the suit.
The plaintiff and the New York Times entered into a voluntary dismissal with prejudice.
The New York Times’ exit from the suit came just days after the two other defendants in the suit, Dow Jones and Forbes, filed a joint motion to dismiss the plaintiff’s amended complaint on behalf of those who have allegedly been induced by fraudulent representations by outside vendor Circulation Billing Systems to subscribe or renew subscriptions to publications operated by the defendants. Dow Jones and Forbes challenged the allegations in the joint dismissal motion, arguing that the plaintiffs’ claims of aiding and abetting fraud should all be dismissed for failure to allege any specific acts of fraud or a basis for holding the publishers liable for Circulation Billing’s actions.
The case is Rabin v. The New York Times Co. et al., case number 1:14-cv-04498, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
July 30, 2014―Forbes, Inc., Dow Jones & Co., Inc. and The New York Times Co. have been named in a class action lawsuit filed in federal court in New York. The suit alleges that the publications were part of a scheme that resulted in their subscribers being overbilled. According to the complaint, the publications provided subscriber lists to a third party vendor who sent renewal notices to subscribers at inflated rates. The third party vendor would then retain the overbilled portion.
