Spotify Billing Class Action Lawsuit Will Go to Arbitration

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

A federal judge has granted Spotify USA Inc.’s petition for arbitration in a class action lawsuit that accuses the online music service of not properly obtaining consent from subscribers when applying automatic renewals to their accounts.

Lead plaintiff, California resident Melissa Bleak, filed the Spotify class action lawsuit in November 2013. Bleak claimed that after starting a premium plan with Spotify, she was surprised by automatic renewal charges to her account. She alleged the Spotify class action lawsuit that the company failed to provide in its notice “a hyperlink to the terms” in its premium plan and also alleged “the terms are not referenced at all on the unlimited plan notice.”  Bleak also alleged that Spotify failed to provide a box to check or any other method for people to provide their affirmative consent to the terms in violation of the California Business and Professions Code. The proposed Spotify class action lawsuit asserted violations of unfair competition laws, injunctive relief and restitution as well.

Spotify filed a petition for arbitration on January 27, arguing that Bleak was bound by an arbitration clause she agreed to when she registered for her account, and stated that “Ms. Bleak’s claims arise from her purchase of Spotify’s music service and fall within the broad ‘any dispute, claim or controversy’ language of Spotify’s arbitration clause.” U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer agreed, granting Spotify’s petition and ordering, without option, a stay of the proceedings until arbitration has been completed.

Spotify’s website advertises currently, “Spotify is now free on mobile, tablet and computer,” and “Listen to the right music, wherever you are.” The company is a commercial music streaming service that provides content from record labels like Sony, EMI, Warner Music Group and Universal and boasts over 6 million subscribers and 24 million active users.

Bleak initially filed her Spotify class action lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court in November, purporting to represent a class of consumers who bought subscriptions with Spotify  in California starting Dec. 1, 2010. Users could purchase either unlimited plans or premium plans. Premium plans, one of which was purchased by Bleak, cost $9.99 each per month and allowed users to stream music online from any device, including desktop computers, laptops, smart phones and other gadgets. Users could also purchase unlimited plans, which would stream music online, but only from their computers and cost $4.99 a month.

Because Bleak asserted claims were likely to exceed $5 million, the Spotify class action lawsuit was removed to federal court. According to Spotify’s motion to remove the case to federal court, more than 1.5 million months of premium subscriptions were purchased by residents of California  in 2013 and California subscribers who upgraded a premium account and were charged through automatic renewal payment methods spent more than $9.75 million that year.

Lead plaintiff, Melissa Bleak, is represented by Julian Hammond and Ari Cherniak of Hammond Law PC.

The Spotify Subscription Billing Class Action Lawsuit is Melissa Bleak v. Spotify USA Inc., Case No. CGC-13-535309, in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of San Francisco.