‘Bait-and-Switch’ Class Action Filed Against AdultTime.com Over Allegedly Deceptive Billing Practices

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A proposed class action accuses the company behind AdultTime.com of using “bait-and-switch” tactics to entice visitors into purchasing a trial membership before enrolling them in automatically renewing paid subscription services without consent.

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The 19-page lawsuit says that website owner GammaBilling, Inc. has run afoul of multiple state laws by failing to present the terms of the automatically renewing subscriptions in a “clear and conspicuous manner” and inform consumers that the services will recur until canceled.

According to the suit, the company “lures” customers into signing up for a one-day $2 trial membership, or a similar offer, on the adult entertainment website and then, “armed with consumers’ credit card information,” “quietly” opts them into an automatically renewing monthly plan as well as an additional paid membership for a second adult website they “did not want, need, or use.”

The plaintiff, an Illinois resident, signed up for the trial membership on AdultTime.com in March 2023, the case shares. Contrary to the company’s legal requirement to plainly present the terms of its subscription service, the checkout page disclosed that the plan would “Recur[] at $19.95/1 month” in small, faint text that was “designed to be easily overlooked,” the complaint alleges.

In addition, a “tiny,” pre-checked box automatically enrolled the plaintiff in a second membership to another adult entertainment website that costs $4.95 per month, the filing relays. Per the lawsuit, this brought the woman’s total monthly charges to almost $25, when she “only intended to pay $2.00 for a brief trial of Adult Time.”

The suit argues that, like the plaintiff, reasonable users who click the large “Start Trial” button to begin what they believe is a short trial membership do not realize that they will be automatically enrolled in two separate subscription plans that will result in recurring monthly fees.

“By using a large ‘Start Trial’ button—which after all, refers to a single ‘trial,’ not multiple trials—along with other design tricks, [the defendant] ensured users did not and could not determine the truth: that GammaBilling was signing up users for two separate trials that required two separate cancellations to avoid expensive monthly subscription fees,” the case contends.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the United States who, during the applicable statute of limitations period, purchased an Adult Time trial membership and was subsequently charged monthly membership fees. The suit also seeks to cover those who were charged for an add-on subscription purchased simultaneously with their Adult Time subscription.

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