State claims that AOL failed to honor cancellation requests from users on free subscription trials America Online Inc. (AOL) and its CompuServe subsidiary were hit by a complaint from Ohio’s attorney general Monday, claiming that they charged customers for Internet access services without their permission.The complaint, filed by Ohio State Attorney General Jim Petro, claims that the service providers failed to honor cancellation requests from users who were on free subscription trials. Once the free trials were over, AOL charged consumers’ credit cards and bank accounts without permission, the complaint alleges.The complaint charges the service providers of violating the Consumer Sales Practices Act and asks for a $25,000 penalty for each violation. Consumers should be able to cancel an agreement with a business within contractual terms, knowing the business will honor the cancellation, Petro said in a statement Monday.Representatives for AOL were not immediately available to comment on the complaint Tuesday.The complaint comes amid other legal woes for AOL, which is currently being investigated by both the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for questions relating to its accounting practices. Furthermore, the SEC is looking into how AOL accounted for its subscriber numbers, alleging that it may have used a bulk subscriber program to fatten its user rolls. In a statement, Petro said that his office has received over 250 complaints about the companies over the last two years. He is also accusing AOL and CompuServe of not clearly displaying the cancellation process on the free trial subscription. Software DevelopmentTechnology IndustrySmall and Medium Business