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Business News Digital Legal
Spotify user launches class action lawsuit over subscription process
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 13 November 2013
A Spotify user in the US named Melissa Bleak has launched a class action lawsuit against the streaming service, claiming that it failed to gain proper consent to take repeat payments from her when she signed up for a paid account.
Legal documents filed in Los Angeles earlier this month, obtained by Digital Music News, state that: “In the premium plan notice, the defendant failed to provide a hyperlink to the terms, and the terms are not referenced at all on the unlimited plan notice. Moreover, defendant failed to provide a box to check or any other method by which plaintiff and class members could provide their affirmative consent to defendant’s terms”.
The lawsuit claims that this failure to gain proper consent is a breach of California business law on automatic payment renewals. It also states that Spotify has broken Unfair Competition Law and calls for remuneration for anyone who has purchased an Unlimited or Premium Spotify subscription in California since December 2010 (a strange distinction, as Spotify didn’t launch in the US until July 2011).
The lawsuit requests that the court rule that Spotify “should be required to disgorge all profits and gains it has reaped and restore such profits and gains to Plaintiff and Class Members [presumably any other Spotify subscribers in California], from whom they were unlawfully taken”. The papers also demand a jury trial.
As this is a class action suit, it could end up being very costly for Spotify, should a court rule in Bleak’s favour. Though the lawsuit seems rather opportunistic so is probably unlikely to get very far. Still, it must be nice for the company to have customers complaining they’re being ripped off, rather than musicians, for a change.
