Playgirl owners stung by $30m fine

Owners of the Playgirl porn site and several other adult content site operators have agreed to pay $30m to disgruntled consumers who have been illegally charged for content that was advertised on the site as free.

Users were instructed to enter credit card details to prove they were old enough to access adult material posted on supposedly free sites, yet they were hit with fees of $20 to $90 every month after posting the information, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Charges to consumers' cards appeared under different names each month, making the charges difficult to stop, the FTC said.

The FTC has demanded that Crescent Publishing Group and its 64 associated organisations pay a $2m bond and that the owners, Bruce Chew and David Bernstein, fork out a further $500,000 each before the sites are allowed to continue operation.

The $30m will be distributed to ripped off consumers by Crescent.