Tribune Publishing Charges Newspaper Subscribers Extra for Items Already Included in Subscription, Class Action Says

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A proposed class action alleges Tribune Publishing Company, LLC has since at least 2015 automatically charged its print newspaper subscribers extra fees for materials already included in their subscriptions.

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The 19-page case says Tribune Publishing—which publishes newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, the Orlando Sentinel, the Sun Sentinel, the Hartford Courant, The Morning Call, The Virginian-Pilot and the Daily Press—misleads subscribers to believe that certain “miscellaneous materials” are separate from the items ordinarily provided by their subscription and must be purchased for an additional fee.

However, the lawsuit claims, the defendant intentionally conceals from consumers that they would receive these materials as part of their subscriptions even if they didn't pay extra for them.

As part of its “unfair, deceptive and unlawful” scheme to increase revenues, the media publishing company pays itself for the materials using the extra charges consumers have paid on top of the full subscription price, the suit contends.

By wrongfully charging class members extra fees for the miscellaneous materials, Tribune Publishing shortens the length of consumers’ paid subscription periods, the complaint says.

The case further claims that the defendant intentionally failed to provide subscribers with itemized billing statements detailing the charges and payments for the miscellaneous materials. According to the filing, subscribers would not have paid extra for materials, or they would not have subscribed to Tribune Publishing’s newspapers in the first place, had they known they would be charged extra for items already included in the subscription.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the United States who was a print-edition subscriber to one or more of Tribune Publishing’s newspapers during the applicable statute of limitations period.

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