TD Ameritrade has agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle allegations of snagging discounts it didn't deserve on postage.
From October 2006 to September 2009, TD Ameritrade's mail didn't qualify for first-class postage discounts because the Omaha-based online brokerage did not update its customer mailings with new addresses from the Postal Service's change-of-address database, U.S. Attorney Deborah Gilg of Omaha said in a statement Tuesday.
She said that caused more work for Postal Service employees because the mail had to be re-sorted and forwarded to the correct address.
A TD Ameritrade spokeswoman said the company paid the settlement to resolve the matter quickly, but the company isn't admitting liability, she said.
Typically, the Postal Service gives deals to companies that send massive amounts of mail as long as they comply with certain requirements, including updating to the new addresses on their mailings.
The Postal Inspection Service investigates these cases not only to protect the Postal Service but also to make sure companies don't receive an unfair competitive advantage, said Oscar Villanueva, postal inspector-in-charge of the Denver division.
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