8/13/2019 "Blacklist Action Instituted by ViDA"

1/2

Blacklist Actisn

By UIDABY FRANK LOVECENEW YORK What may be the firstcomputer blacklist of recalitrant vid-eo consumers is being circulated inthe New York City area by a for-prof-it organization representing morethan 350 local video stores.The l4-month-old Video DealersAssn. (ViDA), based in BrooklYn,publishes a biweekly newsletterlisting the names of nearly 5,000 cus-tomers retailers say have swindledthem.We're not an association per se,notes ViDA co-founder Art Lieber-'lt's up to each

store to putnames on or takethem the

8/13/2019 "Blacklist Action Instituted by ViDA"

2/2

The newsletter Tracks con-tained, as of late June, 4,777 nameswhich Lieberman claims represent $1million in nonpayments. Aside fromthe consumer blacklist, the newslet-ter runs local trade features and ad-vertising, mostly from regionalwholesalers, but also from some program-suppliers.The ViDA consumer list, unlikethose of credit-reference companies,is unregulated-a point Liebermanconcedes has caused problems. It'sreally up to each store to put nameson and also take them off. We getirate calls from consumers asking,What's my name doing on that list?I'm all paid up, and then,we'll callthe store and they'll say,'r0h, yeah.We forgot. 'In many communities, retailersprotect themselves by requiring afull