The complaint stemmed from Mantra's practice of enrolling customers in continuity programs without their consent.

Both Direct Energy and a company it acquired, Energy America were charged with employing unethical business practices, with Energy America being fined over $500,000 in penalties for enrolling customers without permission and using deceptive sales pitches.

"We would also actively use our own Web site to enroll customers, which has been successful for us in other markets."

Then hours later, a federal appeals court gave Vonage a temporary stay of that injunction, allowing the company to continue to enroll customers while it sought to overturn the lower court ruling.

The SiteKey service enrolls customers by having them provide a unique phrase and choose an image from a large library of options.

UnitedHealth Reports Higher Profit as Enrollment Grows The UnitedHealth Group, a provider of medical insurance for about 1 in 10 Americans, said its fourth-quarter earnings increased 18 percent as it enrolled more customers and bought rivals.

Instead of health insurance which reimburses the costs of health care on an item-of-service basis, HMOs enrol customers for an annual fee and, in return, guarantee health care for that year.

The FTC alleged that ads for the "free credit report" did not adequately disclose that Experian would automatically enroll customers in Experian's $79.95 credit-monitoring program.

Last year, Citibank tellers who enrolled enough customers were entered in a drawing for one of two Mustang convertibles.

In the US, Vistaprint has been accused of enrolling customers into Vertrue's paid-membership reward plan without the customer's agreement.