Intuit Inc. will alter a $25 million ad campaign for its TurboTax software after H&R Block took the company to court, saying the advertisements were inaccurate.
Launched Jan. 9, the television and radio commercials were the centerpiece of the campaign that claimed "more returns were prepared with TurboTax last year than at all the H&R Block stores combined." Intuit agreed to change the commercials, after a court ruled the company could not run ads containing the claim through April 30.
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, where Block filed the lawsuit, has not yet ruled on Block's claims for monetary damages and a permanent injunction on running the ads.
Block makes its own software called TaxCut. The company said in its court filing that it prepared more than 26 million returns last year, and pointed to a 2005 conference call where Intuit reported that taxpayers used TurboTax to prepare 21 million returns. Both companies will likely have to produce stronger substantiation for their user numbers.
