In May, LL Bean accused retailers Nordstrom, JC Penney, Atkins
Nutritionals and Gevalia Kaffee of trading on the L L Bean name
through their use of pop-up ad technology from the controversial
behavioural marketing company Claria Corporation (previously known
as Gator).
Claria is well known in the internet community for its software,
which delivers pop-up ads on behalf of its clients to third-party
web sites without permission from the operators of those sites.
The software examines keywords, URLs and search terms in use on
the user's browser and then selects which ads to display to that
user. These ads often refer to competitors of the site being
visited.
LL Bean has now announced that it has entered into settlement
agreements with Gevalia Kaffe and Atkins Nutritionals, the terms of
which prohibit both Gevalia and Atkins from permitting pop-up ads
for their companies to appear on the LL Bean web site.
The settlements also include an undisclosed payment of damages
to LL Bean.
"This is good news for LL Bean and countless consumers who are
fed up with spyware-enabled advertising practices that invade
personal computers and the privacy of their families," said Mary
Lou Kelley, LL Bean's Vice President of E-Commerce.
In June LL Bean was on the receiving end of a lawsuit from
Claria over the e-tailer's pursuit of Nordstrom, JC Penney, Atkins
and Gevalia. Claria said LL Bean was indulging in frivolous
lawsuits against third parties as part of a litigation strategy
against Claria.
