AOL Averts Possible Lawsuit

Once the giant among Internet portals, yesterday AOL averted a possible lawsuit by coming to a $3 million settle with the District of Columbia and 48 states thatmakes it easier for customers to leave.   The furore arose after complaints from customers attempting to leave the service who found themselves still being billed for services they believedalready canceled, or faced with aggressive customer service representatives who received bonuses if they retained customers.   The customer complaints led to a nationwide investigation thatcould have led to a lawsuit if AOL had not agreed to the settlement.   A similar complaint was settled in 2005 in New York for $1.25 million. New York and Florida are the only states notinvolved in the new settlement.   Under the conditions of the settlement, AOL, which is owned by Time Warner, didn’t admit any wrongdoing. Companyspokesperson Amy Call said that the company had already made voluntary improvements in its cancellation process.   “This just codifies those safeguards,” she said.   At the endof the first quarter, AOL had 12 million customers, which is a fall from the 21 million of two years ago