The New York Times Sued Over Website Auto-Renewals in North Carolina

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A proposed class action alleges the New York Times has engaged in an unlawful automatic renewal scheme for subscriptions to its website in North Carolina. 

The 24-page suit claims that the NYT fails to adequately inform North Carolina consumers upon subscribing to NYTimes.com that they will be enrolled in and charged for an automatically renewing subscription. 

Under North Carolina’s automatic renewal statute, the NYT is required to clearly and conspicuously disclose to consumers the automatic renewal clause in a contract or contract offer, and how to cancel the contract or contract offer, the lawsuit states. Moreover, for any automatic renewal exceeding 60 days, the NYT must provide written notice to a consumer by personal delivery, email or first-class mail at least 15 days but no earlier than 45 days before the date the contract is to be automatically renewed, the case relays. This notice must state the date on which the contract is scheduled to be renewed and notify the consumer that the contract will renew automatically unless they cancel it prior to a certain date, the complaint reads. 

Lastly, if the terms of the contract will change upon its automatic renewal, the NYT must clearly and conspicuously inform a consumer of the new contract terms in at least 12-point type and bold print, the suit says. 

As the lawsuit tells it, the NYT’s recent revenue and subscriber growth has coincided with “a sharp decline in subscriber satisfaction” as its website and app have become riddled with “dark patterns.” Per the suit, a dark pattern is a process design that requires completing several complex procedures to accomplish simple things, such as canceling a subscription. 

Regardless of how a consumer subscribes to the NYT website or which subscription plan they choose, the case says, the newspaper “fails to disclose the full terms of its auto-renewal program either before or after checkout, and it never requires the individual to read or affirmatively agree to any terms of service,” such as clicking a check box next to an automatic renewal offer prior to checkout. 

“Consequently, Defendant uniformly fails to obtain any form of consent from – or even provide effective notice to – its subscribers before charging consumers’ Payment Methods on a recurring basis,” the suit argues.

The lawsuit looks to cover all persons in North Carolina who, within the applicable statute of limitations period, incurred renewal fees in connection with any New York Times subscription offerings. 

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