Terra’s Kitchen Class Action Alleges Illegal Auto-Subscription Policies

On Tuesday, Terra’s Kitchen LLC, a company that sells subscriptions for ready-made meals and other products, was hit with a class action lawsuit alleging its automatic renewal or continuous service policies violate California law.

Plaintiff Matthew Lopez alleges Terra’s Kitchen made automatic renewal or continuous service offers to California consumers, but these offers allegedly failed to present the offer terms in a clear and conspicuous manner.

Further, Terra’s Kitchen reportedly charged consumers’ payment cards or bank accounts without first obtaining their affirmative consent to the automatic renewal or continuous service offer terms.

According to the Terra’s Kitchen class action lawsuit, “clear and conspicuous” under the applicable California law means that the automatic renewal or continuous offer terms must be in larger type than the surrounding text or otherwise offset from the surrounding text with a different font, color or symbols to call attention to the language.

Additionally, the Terra’s Kitchen class action lawsuit says the company failed to provide information to consumers in a manner that is capable of being retained by the consumer about the terms of the automatic renewal or continuous service offer terms, cancellation policy, and information about how to cancel the subscription.

These practices constitute a violation of California’s Automatic Renewal Law and also violate California’s Unfair Competition Law, the Terra’s Kitchen class action lawsuit asserts.

According to the automatic renewal class action lawsuit, Lopez purchased a Terra’s Kitchen subscription plan in 2017. However, on the web pages on which the subscriber makes the purchase, there was no description of the automatic renewal policy. Therefore, Terra’s Kitchen failed to obtain his affirmative consent to the automatic renewal or continuous service offer terms as required under California law.

Terra’s Kitchen reportedly sent email follow-ups to consumers who subscribed to its subscription plans, but failed to provide subscribers with an acknowledgement that includes the automatic renewal or continuous service offer terms, cancellation policy, and information about how to cancel the subscription as required by California law, the Terra’s Kitchen class action lawsuit alleges.

Lopez claims that, under California law, Terra’s Kitchen’s failure to obtain affirmative consent to the automatic renewal terms means that all products sent to consumers under the automatic renewal or continuous service agreement are deemed to be an unconditional gift and that California consumers are therefore not obligated to bear the cost of or responsibility for the shipment of such products.

The Terra’s Kitchen class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of Lopez and a proposed Class of persons in California who purchased any product or service in response to an automatic renewal offer via www.TerrasKitchen.com during the applicable statute of limitations period.

The plaintiff seeks damages, restitution, declaratory relief, injunctive relief, attorneys’ fees and costs.

Lopez is represented by Scott J. Ferrell of Pacific Trial Attorneys.

The Terra’s Kitchen Automatic Subscription Renewal Class Action Lawsuit is Matthew Lopez v. Terra’s Kitchen LLC, Case No. 3:18-cv-00842-MMA-JLB, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.