A two-year marketing agreement between vitamin and supplement e-tailer VitaminShoppe.com and America Online Inc. went sour this week.
As a result of the dispute, which centers on performance issues,
VitaminShoppe.com’s advertisements have been yanked
from AOL properties.
“We hope that the dispute is resolved quickly,” Jeffrey Horowitz, president
and chief executive officer of VitaminShoppe.com, said in a statement.
Although VitaminShoppe.com released a short press release about the
discontinuation of the ads, executives weren’t available to provide details
of the dispute this morning. America Online representatives hadn’t returned
phone calls by the time of publication.
The deal, struck in December, placed VitaminShoppe.com in an anchor tenant
spot in the diet and nutrition department of AOL’s Shop@AOL marketplace.
The retailer was also to receive gold tenant positions in several other
departments and be featured in promotions on AOL’s other properties — CompuServe, AOL.com, Digital City and Netscape Netcenter.