Discord Violates Calif. Auto Renewal Law by Charging for Canceled Subs: Class Action

Discord cancels users’ subscriptions for its Nitro instant-messaging and VoIP social-media services “on its own volition,” and then continues to charge subscribers for months after the cancellation, alleged Zhea Zarecor’s class action Friday (docket 3:23-cv-05385) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco on behalf of herself and her 10-year-old son, plus all other consumers similarly situated.

In so doing, Discord “systematically violates state automatic renewal laws,” including those of California, alleged the class action. Discord engages “in a pattern and practice of exploiting its members by continuing to charge them monthly fees, without consumers’ consent, after their subscriptions have been canceled,” it said. The San Antonio resident seeks restitution, statutory damages, attorneys’ fees and “public injunctive relief,” said her complaint.

Under California’s automatic renewal law, enacted in July 2022, a company must present the automatic renewal offer terms or continuous service offer terms “in a clear and conspicuous manner before the subscription or purchasing agreement is fulfilled,” said the class action. Discord terminates accounts on its own volition for many reasons, “including upon discovery” that a Discord user doesn’t meet its 13-year-old minimum age requirements, it said.

Discord promises that in the event it “determines to cancel” a Nitro membership, “any subscription associated with the account will be automatically cancelled,” said the class action. Yet when Discord terminated Zarecor’s son’s account in December 2020 because he was underage, the platform continued to bill Zarecor for a subscription that her son was no longer able to access, and it kept doing so through February 2022, it said.

Discord’s business practices have misled Zarecor and her proposed class and, unless enjoined, “will continue to mislead them in the future,” said the class action. As a “direct and proximate result” of Discord’s unfair, fraudulent and unlawful practices, Zarecor and her class members “suffered and will continue to suffer actual damages,” it said. Discord’s fraudulent conduct “is ongoing and presents a continuing threat” to her and her members “that they will be deceived,” it said. Zarecor wants to conduct further business with Discord, but can’t “rely on Discord’s representations unless an injunction is issued,” it said.