Pop-up advertisements are an Internet blight as old as the 56k modem, but even in 2015, where the application ecosystem rules, lawsuits surrounding the use of these advertisement methods still crop up. Such was the topic at the heart of a recently dismissed class action lawsuit, in which plaintiffs alleged that owner operator of several legal counseling web services intentionally partnered with pop-up facilitators to funnel customers away from the plaintiff's services.

The plaintiffs—two law firms, one based in Oklahoma and the other located in Tennessee—allege that lead generating services IM Solutions and LeadingResponse used adware plugins in a deal with Reed Elsevier Inc. that maliciously diverted customer traffic.

When users of the offending malware visited the homepages of the plaintiff firms, they received a pop-up window questionnaire about their visit, and upon completing that questionnaire they were then prompted to “speak with a lawyer” and directed to defendant Reed, owners of LexisNexis Martindale Hubbell, Lawyers.com, Attorneys.com and LawyerLocator. Following consultation, Reed sent users back to IM Solutions, which matched them with a lawyer.