Lawsuit says new AOL software cripples rival accounts

Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2000 | 11:41 a.m.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- Lawyers filed a class-action lawsuit against America Online Inc. on behalf of 8 million of its customers, claiming the latest version of its software cripples existing Internet accounts with rival companies.

The lawsuit, filed this week in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., near AOL's corporate headquarters, follows scores of complaints lodged by customers of the online service about problems they encountered after installing version 5.0 of AOL's Internet software.

AOL spokesman Rich D'Amato said today the lawsuit "has no basis in fact or law."

AOL has said previously that complaints about interference by its software were overblown and the result of customers not understanding that if they click "yes" during installation to allow AOL to become their default Internet browser, AOL largely takes over all the online functions on the computer.

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