• by Wendy Davis , August 17, 2005

Adware company 180solutions filed a lawsuit this week against seven former distributors for allegedly installing the company's ad-serving software without first obtaining consent from consumers.

But it's not clear that the move will have much consequence, even if the charges are proven, because all of the defendants reside outside the United States--meaning that they might never show up in court, let alone have to pay damages. Two are from the Netherlands, while the rest are from Australia, Lebanon, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Slovenia.

The lawsuit alleges that the defendants all had distribution contracts with LOUDcash, owned by Montreal-based CDT. This April, 180solutions acquired CDT--which had been one of 180solutions' largest distributors--in an attempt to rein in affiliates.

All of the installations happened between January and June of this year, said 180solutions spokesman Sean Sundwall. Together, the defendants allegedly conducted somewhere between 250,000 and 1.25 million installations.

While it's unknown how many consumers gave permission, the rate of conversions attributable to the defendants--between 25 and 35 percent--was much higher than 180solutions normally sees, said Sundwall.