America Online Inc. agreed to pay a $1.25 million fine and change its practice of discouraging consumers from canceling service, after New York State Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer started an investigation into the company’s behavior.

Spitzer’s office received about 300 customer complaints since 2000 and found that AOL’s customer service personnel were given a financial incentive to prevent subscribers from leaving the service.

AOL did not admit wrongdoing.