Apple TV Class Action Lawsuit Says ‘Season Pass’ Deceives Viewers

A class action lawsuit filed in California federal court claims that Apple TV’s purchasing options misled consumers by including promotional clips in the “episode” count for shows.

The Apple TV is an entertainment device which allows users to browse and stream content purchasable through the Apple iTunes store.

Plaintiffs Gabriela Zaragoza and Joseph Coyle claim that in iTunes, each show offered for purchase is given its own home page where consumers can find general information, number of episodes, and purchase prices.

When buying a show, Apple TV users have three purchasing options. First, they are able to purchase individual episodes at a set price per episode. Second, if a season is completed with no new episodes to be released, consumers can purchase the entire season for a total price. Third, if a season is ongoing, consumers can purchase a “season pass” which gives them access to current and future episodes for the show’s given season.

However, according to the Apple TV class action lawsuit, iTunes home pages show the number of episodes but the number does not accurately reflect the number of full episodes available.

Plaintiffs claim that Apple includes promotional videos and clips in their episode count in order to deceive consumers into paying a premium price for episodes.

The Apple TV class action says that after purchasing a season of a show, consumers may be disappointed to find that the have access to fewer full episodes than they were led to believe.

“Plaintiffs and other consumers purchased Season Features from the iTunes store, reasonably relying on Apple’s representations that Plaintiffs and other consumers will receive a certain number of ‘episodes’,” the Apple TV class action argues. “Plaintiffs and other consumers reasonably interpret ‘episodes’ to mean standard, plot-based episodes of a show.”

“Therefore, when Apple represents that a consumer will receive a certain number of episodes, Plaintiffs and other consumers reasonably believe they will receive that many standard, plot-based episodes of a show.”

Zaragoza says she experienced this alleged misrepresentation when purchasing a season pass for “Genius: Einstein.”

She purchased the season pass for $24.99 under the impression that the season had 13 episodes so far. However, only six of the reported “episodes” were actually standard plot-based episodes.

Coyle claims to have experienced the same issue when purchasing a season pass for “Killing Eve.”

Plaintiffs seek to represent a Class of consumers who purchased season features on an Apple TV for a show containing fewer episodes than represented at the time of purchase.

Additionally, Zaragoza seeks to represent two California subclasses of the same consumers and Coyle seeks to represent a New York subclass of the same consumers, protected by their respective state laws.

The Apple TV class action lawsuit seeks damages, restitution, court costs, and attorneys’ fees.

Plaintiffs are represented by Benjamin Heikali and Joshua Nassir of Faruqi & Faruqi LLP.

The Apple TV Season Pass Class Action Lawsuit is Zaragoza, et al. v. Apple Inc., Case No. 5:18-cv-06139-NC, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.