Gobble Dinner Kit Service Hit With Class Action Over Auto Renewal

A class action lawsuit was ordered up against Gobble Inc., alleging that the California company automatically renewed services for customers without their authorization.

Lead plaintiff Carrie Julius alleges in her class action lawsuit that Gobble Inc., a dinner preparation service, failed to adequately inform and get consent from customers to enroll them in automatic renewal programs.

According to Gobble Inc.’s website, “We deliver your 10-minute dinner kits every week, along with foolproof three-step recipe cards.” The website also indicates customers can “skip deliveries whenever [they’re] busy.”

Julius alleges that she signed up for a free trial of the service in August of this last year. She further alleges that using the company’s website, she declined to receive the next service; however, according to the Gobble class action lawsuit, the company still charged her $71.70 for another week’s delivery of the dinner kit service.

According to the allegations in the Gobble class action lawsuit, “At the time Plaintiff was charged for a subscription, Defendant failed to present Defendant’s automatic renewal offer terms or continuous service offer terms in a clear and conspicuous manner, as defined by California’s Automatic Purchase Renewal Statute, before the subscription or purchasing agreement was fulfilled, and in visual or temporal proximity to Defendant’s request for consent to the offer.”

Julius claims that the practice of signing customers up for automatic renewal of the dinner kit service violates California’s automatic purchase renewal statute as well as California’s unfair competition law.

“As a direct and proximate result of Defendant’s unlawful, unfair, and/or fraudulent acts and practices,” alleges that plaintiff in the class action lawsuit, Gobble Inc. “has received and continues to hold unlawfully obtained property and money belonging to Plaintiff and class members in the form of payments made for subscription agreements by Plaintiff and class members,” in violation of California’s Business and Professional Code.

Julius seeks to represent a Class of “[a]ll persons within California who purchased a subscription from Defendant as part of an automatic renewal plan or continuous service offer for products and/or services from Defendant within the four years prior to the filing of this Complaint.”

According to the Gobble class action lawsuit, the plaintiff seeks injunctive relief and restitution from Gobble Inc. She seeks refunds for all customers who did not affirmatively agree to renewal of the dinner kit service from Gobble Inc. She also seeks damages and restitution for subscription payments along with attorneys fees and costs.

Julius is represented by Abbas Kazerounian of Kazerouni Law Group APC and Joshua B. Swigart of Hyde & Swigart.

The Gobble Inc. Dinner Service Auto Renewal Class Action Lawsuit is Carrie Julius v. Gobble Inc., Case No. 3:15-cv-02463 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.