Mainer sues AOL over e-mail spam District Court judge rules that Portland man can’t pursue case in state

PORTLAND – A Maine District Court judge ruled last week that a Portland man who is suing America Online over e-mail spam he receives can’t pursue his case in Maine.

Judge Keith Powers told Louis Philippe on Thursday that he would have to go to Virginia, where AOL’s headquarters are located, to sue the nation’s largest Internet service provider.

Philippe, 48, said after the hearing that he will sue AOL in Virginia for the $1,680 he says is owed him for the time he spent dealing with unsolicited e-mails.

He said he also intends to file a new lawsuit in Portland accusing AOL of violating Maine’s new anti-spam law, which wasn’t in effect when he filed his first case.

The law, which took effect Sept. 13, says a person who receives spam can bring a civil action against the person or company that sent it or allowed it to get through. Under the law, the court can order fines up to $250 for each violation.

“I just feel like there should be some relief for the 24 million AOL customers who have to put up with this,” Philippe said. “Somebody has to challenge them.”

Philippe, a music and theater producer, said he used to delete the unsolicited e-mail from his inbox. But when they multiplied over time, he called AOL’s customer service department to complain. He said he was advised to do one of two things: set up his account to block specific e-mail addresses or create a list of e-mail addresses from which he was willing to accept messages.

He responded that those solutions wouldn’t work because the spam comes from hundreds of different addresses, and because he uses the account for business and he doesn’t want to block potential clients.

Philippe then followed instructions in his contract with AOL and started forwarding every unsolicited e-mail to AOL.

Then he began mailing invoices to the accounts payable department, charging $10 an hour to offset the costs of handling the e-mails.

The company never responded, so Philippe filed his lawsuit in District Court asking for more than $1,600 in overdue service fees.

Portland attorney Jonathan Mermin was hired to represent AOL in the case. He told Powers Thursday that the suit belonged in Virginia because Philippe, along with all other AOL members, agree to a terms-of-service contract before signing on.

The 11-page contract includes the phrase, “exclusive jurisdiction for any claim or dispute against AOL resides in the courts of the Commonwealth of Virginia,” Mermin said.

Philippe attempted to argue that it could be too expensive for him to fight the case in Virginia, and he could be deprived of his day in court as a result.

Powers rejected Philippe’s argument, but acknowledged that such service agreements can be tricky and inconvenient for customers.

“I think most people who sign these agreements have no idea what they are getting into,” Powers said. “It’s not good public policy. And it may not be helpful to you. But they don’t want to be sued in 50 places.”