Spotify Didn't Get Users' Consent Before Billing Them, Says Class Action

Spotify USA Inc. is facing a putative class action lawsuit alleging that the company illegally charged recurring monthly payments to users who purchased “unlimited” or “premium” subscriptions to the music application. The plaintiff alleges that users who purchased the subscriptions did not give affirmative consent to debit or credit card charges because Spotify failed to provide its terms of service at the time of the purchase.

The defendant failed to provide a hyperlink to the terms, and the terms are not referenced at all on the unlimited plan notice.

Spotify is a music streaming application that offers both free and paid subscription packages. Spotify’s free membership comes with ads and can only be accessed by desktop or laptop computers. An unlimited subscription allows users to listen to music ad-free for $4.99 per month, and a premium subscription allows users to listen to music ad-free from any device for $9.99 per month. After choosing a subscription, users are brought to a page where they can enter their billing information, but are not directed to any terms of service.

“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,” according to the complaint. “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.”

Despite providing a warning that users will be billed unless they cancel their subscription, Spotify illegally charges a user’s credit or debit card without their consent by not providing a way for users to approve their terms of service, according to the complaint.

The plaintiff signed up for Spotify’s services in August, but she believes that the company has been wrongfully billing users for nearly three years. She accuses the company of violating state laws that require companies to obtain affirmative consent to terms and conditions before charging a user’s debit or credit card, and is suing on behalf of all users who subscribed to an unlimited or premium plan on Spotify since December 2010.