A class action lawsuit accuses X Corp., the company former known as Twitter, of violating a California law on auto-renewing user subscriptions for premium services.
The lawsuit was brought by a customer, Daniel Kissick, of Whittington, and alleges violation of California's Automatic Renewal Law. That law requires companies to "provide the complete automatic renewal terms clearly and conspicuously and visually proximate to the request for consent prior to the purchase," according to the suit filed in San Francisco County Superior Court.
Kissick paid an initial fee of $9.99 for his X Premium Autorenewal in June, the suit states.
"Defendant failed to clearly and conspicuously disclose to Mr. Kissick all of the X Premium Autorenewal offer terms in visual proximity to his initial enrollment into the X Premium Autorenewal," the lawsuit alleges. "Defendant then charged Mr. Kissick for his X Premium Autorenewal without his affirmative consent."
Among the information that is not included in the confirmation email to customers is the company's cancellation policy or how the customer can cancel, the lawsuit says.
Another example cited in the lawsuit is the lack of definition of "per month" for auto renewal.
"It is not clear whether 'per month' refers to the precise calendar date of the consumer’s initial enrollment, in which case the X Premium Autorenewal would renew every 28–31 days depending on the given month, or refers to four-week intervals, in which the X Premium Autorenewal would renew every 28 days regardless of the calendar date," the suit says. "This information is necessary for consumers to successfully affect cancellation before incurring additional and unwanted charges."
The lawsuit seeks an order declaring that X Corp's conduct violates the ARL, an order requiring the company to comply with the law, plus attorney fees.
The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Y. Christopher Nagakawa and Hrag A. Alexanian. of Zimmerman Reed LLP, of Los Angeles.
Kissick v. XCorp, San Francisco Superior Court, CGC-23-610081