Sinemia Class Action Says Movie Subscription Plan Charges Hidden Fees

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Moviegoers have filed a class action lawsuit claiming that the movie subscription service, Sinemia, charges customers hidden fees on every movie watched.

Plaintiffs Paul Early and Jonathan Gollner say they signed up with Sinemia, which offers “subscription-based movie ticket plans” in which customers pay a monthly or yearly subscription fee to see a certain number of movies in theaters per month.

The two consumers claim that they purchased the subscription because they believed it would save them money.

Allegedly, they were told that with their subscription fee they would be charged a $1.50 third-party convenience fee for each movie purchased.

However, the Sinemia class action says the plaintiffs were also charged an additional $1.80 processing fee per ticket that they were not told about.

According to Early and Gollner, they were not able to purchase the tickets online without paying the processing fee.

Early says he attempted to contact Sinemia customer service about the hidden fee. He claims that he tried to cancel the remainder of his movie plan and requested a refund, but Sinemia did not respond.

The moviegoers say that had they known that they would be charged a total of $3.50 in fees per movie, in part because of the hidden $1.80 processing fee per ticket, they would not have purchased the Sinemia subscription or would not have paid as much for it.

The two customers claim that Sinemia is marketed as a convenient and cost-effective way to purchase movie tickets, and is advertised as an appealing counterpoint to MoviePass, another movie subscription service that was hit with complaints over its inefficacy, and is now facing financial difficulty.

The Sinemia movie subscription class action lawsuit alleges that its model is focused on “profit” and “sustainability.” Additionally, Sinemia was marketed as having fewer restrictions on movies subscribers could see or showtimes they could go to, as Movie Pass reportedly had.

However, Early and Gollner claim that many consumers have attempted to contact the company over the allegedly hidden fees, but were not met with helpful responses.

The plaintiffs say that many consumers were not able to reach customer service at all.

According to the Sinemia class action, Early and Gollner attempted to cancel their Sinemia subscriptions but were unable to do so. As a result, they are allegedly forced to continue to pay for subscriptions they do not want.

The Sinemia movie tickets class action lawsuit claims that the company has financially injured consumers by not allowing them to cancel their subscriptions when requested.

The plaintiffs say that Sinemia also financially injured customers by providing a product that did not have the value that it was advertised to have, because the hidden fees made the subscription more expensive than it was advertised to be and less of a good deal.

The movie goers are represented by Robert J. Kriner Jr., Tiffany J. Cramer, Benjamin F. Johns and Andrew W. Ferich of Chimicles & Tikellis LLP.

The Sinemia Hidden Fees Class Action Lawsuit is Paul Early, et al. v. Sinemia Inc., Case No. 1:18-cv-01774-UNA, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.