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Update:
- On March 9, 2021, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney dismissed a class action lawsuit alleging Rosetta Stone falsely advertised lifetime ownership of its software.
- Plaintiff Nadia Lotun submitted a motion to voluntarily dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning she cannot file the same claim again.
- Court documents did not provide a reason for dismissal.
(Dec. 31, 2020)
A woman says she was misled by Rosetta Stone when she purchased a foreign language learning course advertised as being “yours to keep forever” and then found out it would actually expire in two years.
Nadia Lotun of California claims Rosetta Stone is intentionally deceiving consumers like her in order to sell more language courses and she is suing because over it. Lotun filed a proposed class action lawsuit against Rosetta Stone and its parent companies, Cambian Learning Group Inc. and Veritas Capital Fund Management, asking the court to put a stop to the company’s allegedly unfair practices.
She is seeking a jury trial and financial compensation for her and other potential Class Members who also purchased Rosetta Stone language software that did not come with lifetime ownership.
“Defendants actively promoted, advertised, and represented to consumers a ‘lifetime software download’ of foreign language course(s) … that they never intended to honor,” the class action lawsuit says. Rosetta Stone “concealed, suppressed, and omitted material facts about its foreign language online software package from consumers to entice consumers … [and] to maximize income and sales.”
Lotun says she purchased a Learn Spanish: Rosetta Stone Bonus Pack, which was said to offer a 24-month subscription and lifetime download of the software for about $145 in November 2018 through Amazon.
According to her class action lawsuit, she chose the Rosetta Stone course over other Spanish language learning courses with the “reasonable expectation that she could download the software to any PC and/or Mac at any time for at least a lifetime, and that the Rosetta Stone software was hers to keep forever.”
In fact, the software was only hers to keep for 24 months, the class action lawsuit says. As a result, she felt tricked, cheated and ripped off, her lawyers wrote in the class action complaint.
Lotun claims she not only suffered financial harm due to Rosetta Stone’s practices, but also emotional distress, frustration, anxiety and wasted time.
She claims Rosetta Stone’s actions violate California’s False Advertising, Consumer Legal Remedies, and Unfair Business Practices acts. The company had a “duty to disclose” that the purchase of the software did not include the lifetime access its advertising led Lotun to believe it did, she says.
The court must act and issue an injunction preventing Rosetta Stone from “tricking customers into purchasing [its] products through [its] fraudulent advertisements and packaging,” the class action says.
Lotun originally filed the class action Sept. 24 in California state court. Lawyers for Rosetta Stone moved to have the case transferred to U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Southern Division on Dec. 29.
Have you ever purchased a downloadable Rosetta Stone foreign language course? Were you led to believe the software would be yours to keep, only to find out later that it expired? Tell us about it in the comment section below.
Lead plaintiff Lotun and the proposed Class Members are represented by James H. Bartolomei III of Duncan Firm, P.A.
The Rosetta Stone Class Action Lawsuit is Nadia Lotun, et al. v. Rosetta Stone Inc., et al., Case No. 8:20-cv-02430, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Southern Division.
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2 thoughts onRosetta Stone class action over lifetime ownership dismissed
Just arrived in the USA, approximately 4 years ago I bought a complete course of five CDs to learn English (American) content or 5 levels, where at no time was I warned that it had some type of expiration, for various reasons I have not had the time to dedicate to learning the English language, now that I want to resume my course I find myself unable, since I have it mounted on my old laptop, when I try to mount it on my new laptop I give my data, and they do not allow me to process my application arguing that it is expired, and that I have to buy the course again. I bought the course in Florida, at BestBuy for $499.00. What can I do to have my rights recognized?
Yea I purchase Rosetta Stone maybe a few years back for my daughter. We noticed that the subscription expired after a year and had to purchase another subscription. Once I see that I was confused but didn’t worry about it.