They were clearly trying to see what they could get away with. You have to admire the brazenness with which they decided to float a trial balloon to see if they could get away with stealing thousands of dollars from people at their own personal discretion.
Greed aside, I'm just not sure why any idiot on their legal team would have signed off on that. They have to know that this can't be legal, and that they'd be risking huge lawsuits and penalties for this.