Yahoo Class Action Challenges Rivals.com Automatic Renewals

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Yahoo! Inc. and Rivals.com are facing a class action lawsuit filed by Rivals.com subscribers who claim the companies’ automatic renewal policy and their refusal to issue refunds constitutes a violation of California consumer protection laws.

The Rivals.com class action lawsuit was initially filed in March by plaintiff Andrew Wahl in California state court and was transferred to the Northern District of California federal court last week.

According to the automatic renewal class action lawsuit, Rivals.com (which is owned by Yahoo) consists of a network of websites focused on college basketball and football recruiting.

Access to the general Rivals.com website is free, but users can pay for monthly or annual subscriptions to access “premium” content and other features, such as message boards, exclusive interviews and breaking recruiting news.

An annual Rivals.com subscription reportedly costs $99.95 per year and a monthly subscription costs $9.95 per month, Wahl alleges in the Rivals.com class action lawsuit.

According to the Yahoo class action lawsuit, Rivals.com engages in “unlawful and unfair business practices” by selling monthly and annual subscriptions to its website and failing to present the automatic renewal terms of the subscription in a clear and conspicuous manner as required under California’s Automatic Renewal Law.

Wahl also claims that Rivals.com fails to present the automatic renewal and continuous service offer terms prior to the order fulfillment and in visual proximity to the request for the consumer to consent to the offer.

Rivals.com renews subscriptions, charging customers’ accounts or payment cards without first obtaining their affirmative consent to the terms of the continuous service or automatic renewal offer, and fails to provide them with information about how to cancel their subscriptions, Wahl says in the Rivals.com class action lawsuit.

Wahl alleges that, in February 2015, he purchased a one-year Rivals.com subscription for $99.95. In February 2016, his credit card was automatically charged $99.95 to renew the subscription. He says he stopped using the service as much and so, when his card was charged another $99.95 in February 2017, he decided to cancel his subscription and ask for a refund. However, he learned on the Rivals.com website that he would be unable to recover any of the $99.95 even though he had only been charged two weeks earlier.

“Rivals has taken and continues to take advantage of consumers by including an invalid liquidated damages provision in its subscription agreement declaring all subscription/membership fees non-refundable,” the Rivals.com class action lawsuit says.

Not only does Rivals.com provide refunds of any amount regardless of when a user terminates a subscription, the company allegedly “intimidates consumers” to discourage them from asking for refunds by including terms stating that, if a user requests a refund that is denied under the Terms of Service and the user subsequently files a claim against Rivals, Rivals.com is entitled to collect all costs and legal fees associated with defending itself from the claim.

Wahl filed the Yahoo automatic subscription class action lawsuit on behalf of himself and a Class of consumers who purchased Rivals.com subscriptions and whose credit cards, debit cards or bank accounts were charged on a recurring basis as part of a continuous service offer or automatic renewal plan.

He is seeking damages, restitution, declaratory relief, injunctive relief, attorneys’ fees and costs.

Wahl is represented by Darius Ogloza, David Fortney, Micah Nash and Josephine Lee of Ogloza Fortney LLP.

The Rivals.com Automatic Renewal Policy Class Action Lawsuit is Wahl, et al. v. Yahoo! Inc., Case No. 5:17-cv-02745-HRL, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division.

UPDATE: On May 17, 2018, Yahoo! Inc., which does business as Rivals.com, has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit challenging its policy of automatically renewing subscriptions to its college sports website without consumers’ permission.

UPDATE 2: September 2018, the California Rivals.com automatic renewal class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.