LinkedIn Hit with Class Action in Oregon Over Auto-Renewing Premium Subscriptions

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A proposed class action alleges LinkedIn has failed to provide certain mandatory disclosures before enrolling consumers into automatically renewing—and next-to-impossible-to-cancel— subscription plans for LinkedIn Premium. 

The 88-page lawsuit alleges the career-focused social media network has unilaterally charged customers automatic renewal fees for LinkedIn Premium without their consent, “relying on consumer confusion and inertia to retain customers, combat consumer churn, and bolster its revenues.”

Per the suit, consumers who sign up for a free trial of one of LinkedIn’s Premium tiers, including Premium Career, Premium Business, Recruiter Lite, LinkedIn Learning and Sales Navigator Professional, automatically have that trial converted into a paid subscription without being apprised of the automatic renewal offer terms in a clear and conspicuous manner, and in visual proximity to the request for consent to the offer. LinkedIn is also accused of charging consumers without first obtaining their informed consent to the automatic renewal offer terms, and failing to provide an acknowledgment that clearly states the terms and information on how to cancel. 

According to the suit, LinkedIn makes it “exceedingly difficult and unnecessarily confusing” for consumers to cancel their LinkedIn Premium subscriptions. Per the case, the defendant uses various forms of “dark patterns” to first “trick users into unwittingly signing up” for recurring charges and then prevent them from unsubscribing. 

“In other words, the user interface and experience of the LinkedIn Platform is fundamentally designed to enhance accidental sign-ups and prevent intentional cancellation, thereby ensuring continued revenues from consumers by trapping them in the ongoing subscription purchase,” the complaint contends. 

The case charges that LinkedIn has run afoul of Oregon’s Automatic Renewal Law and Unlawful Trade Practices Act, among other statutes, by “bilk[ing]” LinkedIn Premium subscribers on a monthly or yearly basis without authorization. 

The plaintiff, a Myrtle Creek, Oregon resident, claims that she was hit with 38 unauthorized charges, amounting to more than $1,100, for a LinkedIn Premium subscription that she was unaware she had to cancel in the first place. The woman claims to have attempted to cancel the subscription on at least three different occasions and was not able to do so due to LinkedIn’s “confusing” cancellation policy, the “most crucial aspects of which” were allegedly left out of the initial checkout page and acknowledgment email.

The case looks to represent all persons in Oregon who, within the applicable statute of limitations period, up to and including the date of final judgment in the lawsuit, incurred fees in connection with LinkedIn Premium subscription offerings. 

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