BUSINESS NEWS DIGEST | FTD and Groupon offer flower refunds

FTD and Groupon offer flower refunds

The online coupon site Groupon.com and flower company FTD Group Inc. are offering refunds after getting complaints that a Valentine’s Day flower deal wasn’t so sweet.

Both companies said they didn’t do anything wrong, but they responded to Internet complaints that FTD inflated prices for some Groupon customers who used a coupon for $20 off an FTD flower purchase of $40 or more.

The problem surfaced when several Groupon customers found the flowers they bought were priced lower as sale items on FTD’s own website. They complained on the Groupon site and the Internet that FTD was making up for the Groupon discount by jacking up the prices.

FTD Group Inc. President Rob Apatoff said in an interview on Sunday that wasn’t the case. He said it was clear on the sites that the coupon didn’t apply to sale items.

Japan’s economy shrinks 1.1 percent

TOKYO

Japan’s economy stumbled in the last three months of the year, contracting for the first time in five quarters.

Gross domestic product shrunk at an annualized rate of 1.1 percent in the October-December period, the government said today.

A slowdown in exports and weaker consumer demand at home led to the unsurprising downturn, which is expected to be temporary.

Economists say GDP will expand this quarter in tandem with global growth.

Vindicator wire reports