Time Settles Renewal Probe

Time Warner (TWX Quote) agreed to pay $8.8 million to settle a multistate probe of allegedly deceptive magazine billing practices.

The New York media giant's Time Inc. unit was accused of billing consumers or charging their credit cards for unwanted or unordered magazine subscriptions. The automatic renewal offers were designed to resemble billing invoices, Pennsylvania's attorney general said Tuesday in announcing the settlement.

Time agreed to pay $4.3 million in consumer restitution and $4.5 million to recoup the cost of the investigation. The company said in a statement that it has "already adjusted some marketing and collection practices for clearer disclosure of automatic renewal subscriptions." The publisher of Time, People and Sports Illustrated also said it will make a fund available to certain subscribers who respond to a claim form to be mailed in June. Time admitted no wrongdoing.

More than 108,000 consumers nationwide who received renewal notices and bills between 1998 and May 2004 are eligible to be compensated, the attorney general said.