SoulCycle Customers Ask Court for Help With Discovery Requests

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Plaintiffs in a SoulCycle class action lawsuit are asking the court to compel the defendant to divulge relevant documents.

In a stipulation jointly submitted by all parties, plaintiffs Rachel Cody and Lindsey Knowles say defendant SoulCycle Inc. has been practically ignoring their discovery requests for months.

They are seeking a court order compelling SoulCycle to produce specific sets of documents relevant to the plaintiffs’ claims concerning the company’s gift certificate program.

Plaintiffs say they submitted discovery requests in May and July 2016, to which SoulCycle has allegedly responded by producing exactly 19 pages of documents.

SoulCycle apparently says its efforts to collect and produce documents have “just begun,” according to the plaintiffs.

SoulCycle contends that it has been diligently responding to the plaintiffs’ discovery requests. It claims its previous document production was lean because the plaintiffs’ earlier discovery requests were narrow. The company says it finally produced over 3,700 pages of documents two days before the current joint stipulation was filed.

SoulCycle also says it still has plenty time to produce the requested documents, since discovery cutoff is not scheduled until five months from now.

SoulCycle also believes the plaintiffs are regretting their self-imposed and already passed deadline for filing a motion for Class certification and are now finding they need more discovery to support that motion.

Plaintiff Cody filed this SoulCycle class action lawsuit over a year ago, and she was later joined by plaintiff Knowles.

According to the plaintiffs, SoulCycle has been imposing illegal expiration dates on gift certificates to its indoor cycling classes. The expiration dates range from 30 days to one full year after the certificate is purchased.

If the customer does not redeem the certificate before the expiration date, the customer forfeits the unused balance in the associated account, the plaintiffs claim. SoulCycle has allegedly raked in more than $25 million in revenues by pocketing these unused balances, the plaintiffs allege.

Cody says she had purchased a single $30 gift certificate that later expired before she had a chance to use it.

Plaintiffs claim that by imposing expiration dates on its gift certificates in this way, SoulCycle is violating the federal Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act, the Electronic Funds Transfer Act, and the consumer protection laws of several states.

SoulCycle counters that what the plaintiffs call “gift certificates” are actually classes purchased in advance. The company says these classes do have expiration dates but also that those dates can be pushed back upon request.

SoulCycle claims it has offered to let both Cody and Knowles use their expired classes, but they have reportedly chosen not to. The company characterizes this SoulCycle class action lawsuit as a “manufactured, lawyer-driven case.”

The case has reached the discovery stage after surviving multiple attempts at dismissal by SoulCycle. After largely denying the company’s latest attempt to dismiss the claims, U.S. District Judge George H. King scolded the company for repeating arguments that had already been disposed of in its previous motions for dismissal.

The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Dorian S. Berger and Daniel P. Hipskind of Berger & Hipskind LLP and Nicholas Diamand of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP.

The SoulCycle Gift Certificates Class Action Lawsuit is Cody, et al. v. SoulCycle Inc., Case No. 2:15-cv-06457, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

UPDATE: On April 21, 2017, SoulCycle and Cody agreed to settle the class action. They requested the court vacate the remaining hearings in the lawsuit. Additionally, the parties said they will submit a motion for preliminary approval of the proposed settlement in early June.

UPDATE 2: On June 16, 2017, SoulCycle agreed to pay up to $9.2 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging the fitness company sells gift certificates that can only be redeemed in a short period of time and then fails to offer refunds for the expired gift certificates.

UPDATE 3: On July 12, 2017, the SoulCycle gift certificate class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.