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Online advertiser ValueClick Inc has agreed to pay $2.9-million (U.S.) to settle charges that one of its subsidiaries deceived consumers when it promised free plasma televisions, iPods and other expensive gifts, the Federal Trade Commission said Monday.

The commission also had accused ValueClick and its subsidiaries Hi-Speed Media and E-Babylon of failing to secure consumers' financial information.

The FTC said that Hi-Speed Media had used e-mails, banner ads and pop-ups touting valuable free gifts like laptops to bring consumers to web sites where they were required to take out car loans or buy satellite television subscriptions in order to get the promised gifts.

“The FTC charged that ValueClick's use of deceptively labeled e-mail offering free gifts and its failure to disclose that consumers must expend substantial sums of money to obtain the promised ‘free' merchandise violates the CAN-SPAM Act and the FTC Act,” the commission said in a statement.

Under the settlement, ValueClick and its subsidiaries must pay a $2.9 million civil penalty, stop promising free gifts if consumers must spend money to get them, and establish a program to secure its customers' financial information.

ValueClick, which said Feb. 13 it had taken a charge to its fourth-quarter earnings to cover the settlement, did not immediately return a telephone call Monday seeking comment.

The commission voted 5-0 to approve the settlement. The Justice Department filed for approval of the settlement, on behalf of the FTC, with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.