TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Legal Newsline) – Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi announced a $425,000 settlement on Monday with a penny auction website to resolve allegations it used programming code to deceive consumers throughout the U.S.

Arrow Outlet LLC, doing business as ArrowOutlet.com, allowed users to purchase and place bids on a variety of consumer goods. Arrow allegedly engineered an auto-bid script that artificially inflated the number of bids necessary to win a given auction. Arrow allegedly used the auto-bid script to place bids at certain intervals, which prolonged the auction, increased the number of bids purchased and used, and prevented actual users from winning the items.