Tennessee has won a major battle against a deceptive lister -- the state attorney general has ordered a Pennsylvania-based order gatherer to stop doing business in Tennessee for 15 years and pay the state $26,000.

"Small businesses and consumers deserve to know whom they are dealing with when they order flowers," said Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper in a press release. "We want consumers to be able to get the best value for their hard-earned dollars."

Cooper and Mary Clement, director of consumer affairs in the Department of Commerce and Insurance, signed an agreement with Pennsylvania order gatherer Teleflorist, Inc., which is not affiliated with Teleflora, to settle allegations that the company failed to disclose more than 800 business name listings and more than 50 phone numbers in a previous settlement. This is the second time the state has taken Teleflorist to court.

"We are all very excited about this," says Jerry Hankins, AIFD, TCF, executive director of the Tennessee State Florists' Association, which first brought the matter to the state's attention in 2006. "We are just hoping the attorney general continues to pursue this issue."

As reported in the Oct. 25 issue of E-Brief, in September 2006, Cooper ordered Teleflorist to give every Tennessean who had placed an order with the company $40 in restitution for misrepresenting itself as a Tennessee business in 39 cities, using more than 50 assumed company names. As part of that settlement, the company also agreed to pay $13,000 to the state and to stop representing itself as a local business.

This most recent settlement follows a subsequent investigation into what the state believed had been other floral order gatherer operations. Based on the findings of the investigation, Cooper moved aside the previous settlement and brought a contempt motion. "They didn't abide by the original agreement [to stop representing as a local business] so we took them back to court," says Sharon Curtis-Flair, a spokeswoman for the attorney general.

In addition to the 15-year ban and the $26,000 payment, the agreement includes a five-year ban that prevents one of Teleflorist's key corporate officers from conducting a similar business in Tennessee, and a five-month extension of time for Teleflorist's customers to request refund checks from the company.

Teleflorist does not admit any wrongdoing in either settlement.