Dating Service Agrees to Settle FTC Charges

Great Expectations International, an Encino-based dating service company, and 23 of its domestic franchisees have agreed to issue refunds to customers who may have paid improperly high finance charges on their memberships, the Federal Trade Commission announced Thursday.

The FTC predicted that the refunds could total more than $200,000, but company officials downplayed the settlement, saying the overcharges amount to only a few cents per customer.

“The average refund is 10 cents,” said Keith Granier, Great Expectations’ chief operating officer.

The refunds, which affect Great Expectations members in Los Angeles and 26 other cities, are part of a comprehensive settlement to 1993 FTC charges. The commission had alleged that the franchisees violated the federal Truth in Lending Act by making inaccurate or incomplete disclosures to members about the costs of using credit to finance memberships that ranged in price from $975 to $3,100. The FTC said the company continued to use contracts that gave “false and misleading disclosures” about credit terms even after an auditor informed Great Expectations that the forms violated the Truth in Lending Act.