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Disney has asked a Florida federal court to dismiss a class action lawsuit filed by annual ticket holders who seek a refund due to COVID-19 closures.
According to Disney Destinations – a Disney subsidiary responsible for parks like Disneyland and Disney World, plaintiffs in the annual pass class action lawsuit lack the standing to make their claims and have failed to properly state their allegations. The company told the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida that the plaintiff’s “‘gotcha’ complaint is much ado about nothing.”
Plaintiffs Ramon Santiago Rodriguez Torres, Melissa Marlene Sanabira Rodriguez, Matthew Paul Schweri, and other Disney fans filed their Disney parks class action lawsuit in July, soon after they were allegedly charged several months of retroactive fees for the period that the parks were closed.
Disney annual ticket holders reportedly pay a monthly fee in exchange for “broad and guaranteed access” to Disney parks such as Disney World and Disneyland, the plaintiffs note. Ticket holders have the option to pay for their annual pass on a yearly or monthly basis. Individuals who pay in monthly installments reportedly have their payments taken from their account each month automatically.
Although the plaintiffs authorized this monthly payment, they claimed that they had not authorized Disney to charge them for retroactive months after the parks were reopened. According to the plaintiffs, these charges amounted to financial injuries and violated the Electronic Funds Transfer Act.
Disney has denied any wrongdoing. According to the amusement parks company, the charges seen in July were a “one-time billing error” which was reversed quickly. The company also denied claims that they were “unjustly enriched” by this error.
“Moreover, while plaintiffs claim ‘stress and aggravation’ and ‘mental anguish’ resulting from a onetime billing error, no funds were transferred from their accounts, and Disney has already paid or offered to pay any bank fees or other harm caused by that error,” Disney argues in their dismissal motion. “Litigation cannot reasonably achieve for them any redress that Disney has not already offered.”
The plaintiffs allege further injury apart from the months of retroactive fees they were charged. According to the annual ticket holders, they have been denied the benefits of the passes they purchased under Disney’s reopening plan.
Before the pandemic, annual pass holders were given the ability to reserve spots ahead of time and beat the lines typically associated with amusement parks like Disney World.
Now that the parks are grappling with state and local safety requirements, Disney parks are forced to operate at a much lower capacity.
As a result, annual ticket holders are reportedly unable to book their spot in advance or receive other benefits typically associated with annual passes.
Due to these changes, the plaintiffs contend that they are not getting the full value of their annual pass purchases.
Although the plaintiffs say that this loss of value was an additional financial injury, Disney argues that pass holders were given the option to make changes to their passes in light of coronavirus changes.
According to the company’s dismissal motion, Disney “not only informed pass holders about the changes to the park experience — it gave annual pass holders the choice to either opt in to the changes or opt out and receive refunds for the unused value of their passes.”
Disney also challenges the ticket holders’ claims that they breached the terms of their contract with customers by making changes to park operations.
According to the parks operator, annual pass contracts don’t provide a guarantee that annual ticket holders will gain entry to one of their parks. This was reportedly in effect even before the coronavirus pandemic forced parks to limit their capacity.
Based on these purported deficiencies, Disney has asked the Florida federal court to dismiss the annual ticket holders’ class action lawsuit. The company notes that similar claims against SeaWorld were dismissed, saying that “[p]erformance has been rendered impracticable by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Did you have an annual pass to Disney parks for 2020? Was your pass impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic? Let us know in the comment section below.
The annual ticket holders and proposed Class are represented by Katherine E. Yanes and Gus M. Centrone of Kynes Markman & Felman, Brian L. Shrader of Shrader Law PLLC, and Christie D. Arkovich of Christie D. Arkovich PA.
The Disney Parks Annual Pass Class Action Lawsuit is Leon, et al. v. Disney Destinations LLC, Case No. 6:20-cv-1780, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
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7 thoughts onDisney Wants Annual Ticket Holders COVID-19 Refund Class Action Lawsuit Dismissed
After endlessly contacting Disney World for over 2 years I finally realized that Disney refuses to pro-rate the monthly payment plan ticket holders due to usage. In my case my pass was only active less than 20% of the time before the parks closed. I paid out almost $1500 for those passes or 70% of the year’s total. I ended up getting $311 back as a refund. My downpayments and extra month of payments before the passes were activated were not considered or pro-rated for refund. This means that had I shelled out for the whole ticket amount in the beginning, they would have pro-rated me. In my case, a refund of $1100. But since I signed up for the monthly payment plan, my refund was $311. How could there be this double standard? I mean how is there not a class action lawsuit for having two different set of refund rules?
M wife and I are retired and we’re told by Disney that if we renewed our annual passes (which we did in Feb.) and made the monthly payment, the period for our passes would start when the parks opened up again. Disney then got rid of the annual passes before we were able to use them and we are now out almost $700. Trying to contact Disney about this is almost impossible. The wait time on the phone is about 10 hour, if it doesn’t disconnect you to have to start the call over again.
Yes I do have infact i bought 4 annual passes for us but when the pandemic starts we couldnt use them i asked if we could extend our annual pass they been asking to send the details of purhased.
Disneyland refuses to refund some annual passholders who prepaid in full their passes. When sued, Disney is requiring them to sign a General Release of all claims, known and unknown, under California Civil Code Section 1542. This is an unreasonable demand for simple small claims cases, and Disney is knowingly refusing refunds in order to extract 1542 releases from passholders.
This violates California Business and Professions Code 17200
I am a teacher, my wife is a nurse, both working throughout the pandemic. Closed prior to our spring break planned vacation (fast passes and all). Inquired via mail and phone multiple times. Were told we could get a refund but they could tell us how much.. Were told they extended pass for days they were closed, geez thanks? We live in a state where we COULD NOT travel to Florida (especially as a nurse and teacher). When the dust settled and we called to just get whatever the refund would be, they told us “Too Late”. Extremely disappointed for how this was handled.
My family bought season passes March 11 2020 to Disneyland in CA. We made the down-payment and first month payment, then the park closed 3 days later. I called to see if we could resume payments when the park eventually opens and I was told the deadline has passed and my pass would expire on its anniversary. I made a down-payment and paid for a full month and the park was only open for 3 days of my contract. I feel I’m entitled to a full refund. They obviously do not want to give me one.
We had weekday yearly pass and they would not extend our passes and also would not give us same price this year to renew our passes and they were closed or had to have limited guest there and we did not feel safe to go up there if we were picked to be able to get in !