Edelson McGuire Class Action: Discover Financial Services and United Marketing Group Conspired to Exploit Small Businesses.

CHICAGO, April 15 /PRNewswire/ -- A class action filed today in Illinois Circuit Court alleges Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) and United Marketing Group "conspired to bilk potentially thousands of small businesses out of untold amounts of money through a scheme involving deceptive telemarketing and illegal billing practices."    

According to Plaintiff Mc-K Sales, which operates Briggs Lake General Store in rural Minnesota, Discover deliberately transmits its merchant customers' confidential contact and account information to UMG. Plaintiff claims that UMG used that information to contact it directly and requested confirmation of several seemingly harmless pieces of information, including the business's name and address. Mc-K claims Discover then continually withdrew funds from its merchant and checking accounts on UMG's behalf.  When questioned, Discover claimed the charges were authorized, and directed Plaintiff to UMG.  UMG, for its part, produced an altered voice recording purporting to be Plaintiff's employee consenting to the charges.

"The relationship between small businesses and credit card companies is based on trust. Discover grossly breached that trust by actively facilitating the exploitation of its own customers," says Plaintiff's attorney, Will Haselden of Edelson McGuire, LLC. "Without Discover's merchants, Discover Card holders have nowhere to use their credit cards, and Discover's whole business suffers.  Discover should be catering to its merchants' needs rather than treating them as vehicles for generating questionable revenue." Edelson McGuire recently brought suit against UMG on behalf of consumers alleging similar deceptive marketing and billing practices.    

Haselden is joined in the suit by Christopher Dore and Benjamin Richman of Edelson McGuire, and Cliff Cantor of the Law Offices of Clifford A. Cantor, P.C.

About Edelson McGuire:  Edelson McGuire is a commercial litigation and legal and political consulting firm with attorneys in Illinois, New York, California, and Florida.  The firm's attorneys have been recognized as leaders in these fields by state and federal legislatures, national and international media groups, the courts and their peers.  They have testified before the United States Senate on class action issues and have repeatedly been asked to work on federal and state legislation and policy issues involving banking, cellular telephony and consumer privacy.  Their class settlements are collectively worth over one billion dollars and have changed the consumer protection policies of numerous industries.

SOURCE Edelson McGuire