Tauler Smith LLP filed an ARL claim against textbook company Chegg for allegedly renewing customer subscriptions without notice or authorization. KNTV, which serves as the NBC outlet for the San Francisco Bay Area, reported that the civil lawsuit was filed in federal court on behalf of a student who rented a book for her law school class. It is not uncommon for consumers who make what they thought was a one-time purchase online to later realize that they have been charged again – and again! – for an auto-renewing subscription. The California Automatic Renewal Law (ARL) makes it illegal for companies like Chegg to engage in this kind of deception. The statute also gives consumers the ability to pursue damages of up to $2,500 for each ARL violation. California false advertising attorney Robert Tauler is leading the fight for consumers against companies that violate the rights of customers with deceptive auto-renewal policies.
Click here to view the NBC Bay Area News report on the latest lawsuit filed under California’s ARL. To learn more about the Automatic Renewal Law claims against Chegg, keep reading this blog.
NBC Bay Area News Investigates Automatic Renewal Law Claim Against Chegg
A recent report by KNTV, the Bay Area affiliate of NBC, details the battle being fought by consumers who learn that they were automatically enrolled in a Chegg subscription service without their permission. The KNTV investigative team learned that many of these consumers have also found it nearly impossible to cancel the subscription and to get a refund for the unauthorized charges.
The plaintiff in the case is Sheri Moyer, a law student who needed a textbook for one of her law school classes. That book would have cost her upwards of $120, so instead she rented a digital textbook for $19.99 from Santa Clara-based Chegg. What is Chegg? Chegg markets itself as an education technology company that offers online tutoring, textbook sales, and both digital and physical textbook rentals to students in a variety of fields.
Moyer only needed the law school course book to complete a short class assignment, so it made sense for her to rent it instead of buying it. She paid for a 30-day subscription on Chegg and finished her assignment. But she was shocked when she checked her credit card statement the following month to see that Chegg charged her for another 30-day subscription. It turned out that the textbook rental company had auto billed her without authorization. To make matters worse, Chegg refused to refund Moyer’s money because “they had a zero-refund policy.”
Tauler Smith LLP Files Consumer Protection Lawsuit Against Chegg
Sheri Moyer has enlisted the Los Angeles law firm Tauler Smith LLP to help her file a civil suit against Chegg in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Chegg contested the lawsuit by getting the case moved to arbitration. Moyer wanted the case to go to trial so that she would have an opportunity to tell her story to a jury, but a federal judge ruled that the parties must first present their arguments to an arbitrator. The judge also ruled that the parties will need to provide the court with regular updates on the arbitration process.
Tauler Smith LLP frequently represents plaintiffs in consumer fraud actions and automatic renewal lawsuits filed in California courts. For example, our legal team recently filed an ARL claim against a casting company accused of deceptively renewing customer subscriptions to their service.
Consumer Class Action Lawsuit: Chegg Accused of Automatically Renewing Subscriptions Without Permission
In the Chegg textbook rental case, Sheri Moyer is suing for reimbursement of fraudulent charges, as well as statutory damages. That’s because the ARL allows consumers to recover $2,500 for each violation of the auto-renewal statute.
More than anything, Moyer wants to make sure that the online textbook rental company is held accountable for their deceptive actions, which allegedly included failing to disclose their auto-renewal policy. Moyer’s attorney, consumer advocate Robert Tauler, filed the suit in the federal court in San Jose because he wants to establish legal precedent throughout the state and send a strong message to other companies that trick customers into auto-renewing subscriptions. Tauler believes this is an important business fraud case that warrants class action status, which is why he is asking other consumers who have been charged for automatically renewing subscriptions to come forward. By exercising their legal rights, they can help put a stop to the fraud being committed by many online retailers that do business in California. Consumers who join the class action lawsuit can also recover statutory damages of $2,500 for every ARL violation committed by the company.
Contact the California Consumer Protection Attorneys at Tauler Smith LLP
The California consumer protection lawyers at Tauler Smith LLP regularly appear in both state and federal courts on behalf of consumers who were fraudulently charged for automatically renewing subscriptions. Our legal team is currently looking for plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit against the educational support services company Chegg. If you signed up for a textbook subscription with Chegg or any other type of subscription with an online retailer, we can help you file a civil suit for financial compensation.
Call 310-590-3927 or send an email today.
