Cancel Any Time? FloSports Viewers ‘Misled’ Into Signing Up for Annual Subscriptions, Class Action Alleges [UPDATE]

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A proposed class action alleges subscription streaming service FloSports has broken the law by routinely taking money out of consumers’ bank accounts without written authorization. 

The 35-page complaint alleges Austin, Texas-based FloSports, who offers live and on-demand access to a wide variety of competitions across “25+ vertical sports categories,” has violated the federal Electronic Funds Transfer Act (EFTA) by initiating preauthorized electronic funds transfers from consumers’ bank accounts without consent and without providing a copy of the purported written authorization to those who were charged. 

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The case also accuses FloSports of violating New York’s Automatic Renewal Law, which requires a company offering an automatically renewing subscription service to clearly and conspicuously provide the terms of the automatic renewal offer, obtain consent, and offer an easy-to-use mechanism for canceling the contract, among other mandates. 

More specifically, the plaintiff, a Tonawanda, New York resident, alleges that at the FloSports subscription checkout screen, consumers are misled into believing that they are signing up for a service for which they will be charged a monthly fee, only to discover that they were charged a substantially higher annual fee. Further, the suit claims FloSports is able to unilaterally charge customers renewal fees without their consent, as it possesses their billing information. 

According to the suit, FloSports has “concocted a scheme” to charge sports fans on a yearly basis, without requisite consent or disclosures and “in reliance on consumer confusion,” as many subscribers believe they are agreeing to a monthly service that can be canceled at any time. 

FloSports reportedly has more than 500,000 subscribers, yet a bevy of online complaints is indicative of the company’s “unlawful subscription practices,” the suit claims. In particular, consumers have complained about FloSports’ “misleading enrollment process,” about being charged a one-time fee only to realize they’ve been charged for a yearly membership, and about being misled into believing they’d only pay a monthly fee, the case relays. 

According to the filing, there are more than 900 complaints against FloSports on the Better Business Bureau website, “many of which involve these same issues.” 

The case contends that regardless of how a consumer subscribes to FloSports, either on its desktop or mobile site, and irrespective of which plan they select, the streamer’s two checkout pages fail to disclose the full terms of its auto-renewal program, either before or after checkout, and consumers are never required to read or affirmatively agree to any terms of service. Consequently, FloSports does not obtain any form of consent from subscribers before charging them on a recurring basis, the suit argues. 

Although FloSports mentions “[r]ecurring billing, cancel anytime” on its first checkout page, this disclosure is “grossly inadequate” because it does not specify that a consumer is enrolling in an annual subscription, the lawsuit says. On its second checkout page, the statement “Your annual subscription will automatically renew on [the year after the enrollment date] and each year thereafter until you cancel” is similarly inadequate because it too “fails to specify that the consumer is even enrolling in an ‘annual subscription,’” the case adds. 

The plaintiff claims that although he signed up with FloSports to watch one race, believing he would pay only a monthly charge of roughly $12.50, he instead was charged an annual fee of $160. The plaintiff “had no idea he was going to be charged” that much given FloSports’ checkout page prominently displayed that the purchase price was $12.50 per month. Per the case, the man was not offered the monthly subscription option of $29.00 per month and would have chosen this option had it been made available. The man claims he initially did not receive a response from FloSports after contacting the company and requesting a refund, and was eventually informed that since he did not contact FloSports within 30 days of signing up, even though he did in fact contact the company, his subscription could not be changed or refunded. 

The specific FloSports channels mentioned in the suit include FloBikes, FloBowling, FloCheer, FloComba, FloDance, FloElite, FloFC, FloFootball, FloGrappling, FloGymnastics, FloHockey, FloHoops, FloLive, FloMarching, FloRacing, FloRodeo, FloRugby, FloSoftball, FloSwimming, FloTrack, FloVoice, FloVolleyball, FloWrestling, and Varsity. 

The lawsuit looks to cover all FloSports customers in the United States who were automatically enrolled into and charged for at least one month of membership by the company at any time within the applicable statute of limitations period. 

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