Rosetta Stone Class Action Lawsuit Says ‘Lifetime Software’ Expires

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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