Not So Free Trial: Trans World Entertainment Corp., Synapse Group Hit with Class Action Over 'Free Trial' Subscriptions
Rovinelli et al v. Trans World Entertainment et al
Filed: November 14, 2018 ◆§ 1:18cv12377
A class action claims the companies used "highly aggressive" tactics to wrangle unsuspecting consumers into "worthless" monthly subscriptions.
Three plaintiffs have put their names on a proposed class action lawsuit in which they allege Trans World Entertainment Corporation and Synapse Group, Inc. made millions from fraudulent “loyalty memberships” and magazine subscriptions consumers never consented to purchase in the first place. Using “highly aggressive” sales tactics, the defendants allegedly lured consumers in by way of what the lawsuit calls “negative option marketing,” particularly “free-to-pay conversions,” that resulted in proposed class members unknowingly and automatically enrolling in “worthless” subscriptions and memberships for a monthly charge.
“[The defendants] failed to disclose to [the plaintiffs] and the subclasses all the material terms of the free-to-pay conversions in an effort to induce consumers to accept the ‘free trials,’” the lawsuit states. “Despite failing to disclose the material terms, Trans World and its marketing partner, Synapse, charged consumers’ credit cards, debit cards, and/or bank accounts for bogus memberships and unwanted magazines without consumers’ express consent, and continued to do so until consumers affirmatively, and separately, canceled each membership subscription.”
At the center of the lawsuit are “free-to-pay conversions,” which Massachusetts and other states define as a form of marketing that relies on “trickery and sleight of hand” to make money in a manner “flatly contrary” to how ordinary consumer transactions work. Free-to-pay conversions are problematic, the suit goes on, because a consumer cannot effectively give informed consent at the outset of an allegedly “free” trial period due to this timeframe being touted as without obligation or risk-free. What this accomplishes, the case says, is that consumers are often lulled into a state of forgetfulness while monthly charges are continually racked up with few options, if any, to escape the extremely one-sided transaction arrangement.
More specifically, the problems with free-to-pay conversions, the complaint continues, include but are not limited to:
- The “misleading character” of negative options advertised by companies such as the defendants involving “free” or “trial” offers that impart to consumers that they have no obligation to do anything. A consumer’s silence after he or she accepts an ostensibly free offer opens him or her up to recurrent charges of unlimited duration;
- Consumers’ general lack of awareness with regard to periodic charges made to their credit or debit cards in connection with supposedly free trial offers; and
- The sheer number of trial conversion charges with which consumers are hit over long periods, causing substantial amounts of money to be paid when an individual can “make little to no use of the goods or services offered.”
According to the 39-page lawsuit, the defendants’ predatory scheme utilized a score of tactics the plaintiffs describe as “misleading, confusing, unlawful, deceptive and unfair,” including:
- Enrolling and billing proposed class members for memberships and subscriptions without their consent or knowledge;
- Failing to provide consumers with the terms governing free-to-pay conversions prior to obtaining their signatures;
- Failing to disclose said terms in a clear and conspicuous manner;
- Failing to disclose to consumers the terms of the transactions before obtaining billing information;
- Failing to obtain consent before charging consumers’ credit and/or debit cards and bank accounts;
- Failing to obtain authorization before transmitting and sharing proposed class members’ confidential billing information with third-party marketing partners;
- Misrepresenting the nature and terms of the companies’ auto-renewal, refund, return or cancelation policy; and
- Failing to provide a simple mechanism by which consumers can stop recurring charges.
The full complaint can be read below.
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