A California man has filed a class-action suit against AOL for including text e-mail ads in the footers of paid subscribers’ outgoing messages.

HBSS has reached a proposed settlement in the Expedia litigation. Pending court approval of the proposed settlement, Expedia has agreed to pay up to $123.4 million in cash and credits to settle claims that the travel-booking giant defrauded consumers by repeatedly breaching its contractual obligations by charging service fees under false pretenses in millions of hotel transactions, as well as claims the company violated the Consumer Protection Act.

The settlement includes anyone who purchased a hotel stay from Expedia between January 10, 2001 and June 11, 2008, and anyone who purchased a travel package from Expedia between Feb. 18, 2003 and Dec. 11, 2006 that includes a hotel stay as part of the package.

As the result of a settlement stemming from separate class action lawsuits that have been consolidated (one brought against Fair Isaac in California and one against Equifax Consumer Services Inc. and Fair Isaac in Georgia), consumers who bought certain credit-monitoring or scoring products from Fair Isaac or Equifax between Nov. 19, 1999, and Feb. 8, 2007, may be eligible to receive benefits.

Under the terms of the settlement, Fair Isaac and Atlanta-based Equifax have agreed to provide class members with three months of one of their services, Score Watch, for free. Consumers can visit www.hillisslacksettlement.com to determine if they qualify for this benefit.   (February 2007)