A California VAR said he filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission late last year against Hewlett-Packard that claims the vendor misappropriates trade secrets in an effort to expand direct sales.

Lloyd Chapman, general manager of GC Micro, Novato, Calif., said he's president and founder of the Microcomputer Industry Suppliers Association. Chapman said the organization was founded "about nine months ago" and has more than 1,000 member companies, mainly small VARs. He said he filed the complaint against HP on behalf of the organization.

Chapman said he filed the complaint online "three or four months ago" with the FTC. Chapman, however, was unable to produce a copy of the complaint. The complaint alleges that HP uses proprietary customer information supplied by VARs when they participate in the vendor's various rebate programs, he said.

An FTC spokeswoman said, "Anybody can file a complaint with the FTC online. Unless it was a pretty egregious thing (one complaint) probably wouldn't (trigger an investigation)."

The spokeswoman said that usually when an association or group of associations files a complaint it goes through the office of the secretary and is not filed online.

Chapman wasn't able to immediately produce the names of any other association members who sold HP products and were potentially harmed by the alleged wrongdoing on the part of HP. An attorney who Chapman said works with the association did not return phone calls.

When asked about the complaint at this week's HP Americas Partner conference in Orlando, Fla., Kevin Gilroy, vice president and general manger of commercial channels for the Americas at HP, said he "categorically denied" all of the charges.

Chapman said that to participate in the HP rebate programs, VARs must supply customer phone numbers and pricing information to HP. Chapman alleged that HP then uses that information to take the accounts direct.

When asked if he had specific proof that HP was abusing the data, Chapman said, "If they have it, how can they not use it?"

As part of his evidence, Chapman cited articles from CRN and VARBusiness, published between April 1998 and January 2000, in which executives from Compaq Computer--now part of HP--said the company intends to increase its direct business while still maintaining its channel relationships. But he alleged that HP's intent is to eliminate its resellers by misappropriating their customer data.

Oli Thordarson, president of Alvaka Networks, a Huntington Beach, Calif.-based solution provider, said he suspects that some vendors in the past have used some of his account registration information to try and take an account direct with a special offer.