Publishers Clearing House will pay approximately $30 million to settle a federal class-action lawsuit over its sweepstakes advertising and marketing practices.
PCH spokesman Christopher Irving told DIRECT Newsline that the final settlement agreement, approved Friday by U.S. District Judge G. Patrick Murphy, was “fair, reasonable and comprehensive.”
He added that the Port Washington, NY-based sweepstakes operator and stamp sheet marketer of magazine subscriptions, which admits no wrongdoing, “will make 100 percent restitution” to consumers who purchased a variety of goods and services between Feb. 3, 1992 and last June 30 thinking it would enhance their chances of winning the firm’s multi-million dollar sweepstakes.
PCH will also offer those consumers at least three automatic entries in future sweepstakes programs under the settlement agreement which Judge Murphy tentatively approved last July.
Although an estimated 43 million households received copies of the tentative settlement agreement, court records indicate that about 100,000 responded.
There was no immediate indication of what effect, if any, the settlement would have on similar lawsuits pending in at least 26 state courts.
Each of the suits allege that since 1996 PCH mislead recipients of its sweepstakes mailings into believing that they were a guaranteed winner when, in fact, they were not, and taking out magazine subscriptions or buying merchandise to enhance their chances of winning.
Network
