Judge Fines H&R; Block for Misleading Ads

A federal judge barred H&R; Block, the nation’s largest income tax preparer, from using misleading phrases to advertise its Rapid Refund loan program and ordered it to pay more than $500,000 to an upstart rival. U.S. District Judge Raymond Jackson in Norfolk, Va., accused H&R; Block of deliberately and maliciously using deceptive advertising to draw customers in the Hampton Roads, Va., area just as a competing tax preparation service was launching its business there. Jackson ordered H&R; Block to pay Liberty Tax Service $507,477, representing a portion of Block’s profit in Hampton Roads in 2000. The advertising also appeared last year in California, Iowa, New York and Ohio.