Look Cinemas allegedly charges convenience fee at end of ticket purchase process

Look Cinemas convenience fee class action lawsuit overview: 

• Who: Michael DeSimone filed a class action lawsuit against Look Brands LLC. 
• Why: DeSimone claims Look Cinemas is violating a New York law by allegedly charging consumers who purchase movie tickets on its website a $1.95 convenience fee after initially quoting them a feeless price. 
• Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in New York federal court. 

Look Cinemas “ambushed” consumers who purchase a movie ticket on its website with a $1.95 convenience fee per ticket at checkout, a new class action lawsuit alleges. 

Plaintiff Michael DeSimone claims Look Cinemas uses this “cheap trick” at the end of the ticket checkout process to “swindle substantial sums of money from its customers.” 

DeSimone argues Look Cinemas is violating a New York state law by allegedly initially quoting a feeless price before charging a convenience fee at checkout — once consumers have already clicked through various screens. 

“For a family of four, Defendant tacks on an extra $7.80 at the end of the purchase process. That is roughly equivalent to the cost of a bucket of popcorn,” the Look Cinemas class action states. 

DeSimone wants to represent a nationwide class and New York subclass of consumers who have purchased through Look Cinemas website an electronic ticket to any film screening in a cinema located in New York on or after Aug. 29, 2022. 

Look Cinemas allegedly does not make it clear how is being charged in fees alone

DeSimone argues Look Cinemas does not make it immediately clear to consumers how much they are being charged in fees, since it allegedly bundles the fees with purported government taxes. 

“A consumer must instead click on the small purple ‘DETAILS’ text to obtain a breakdown of how much is being charged in Defendant’s fees in particular,” the Look Cinemas class action states. 

Further, when a consumer clicks to see more information about the taxes and fees they will find that “no taxes are charged at all” and “the entire $1.95 amount is sent to Defendant’s coffers as a ‘Ticket Convenience Fee,’” the Look Cinemas class action alleges. 

DeSimone claims the company is guilty of violating the New York State Arts and Cultural Affairs Law. He is demanding a jury trial and requesting declaratory and injunctive relief along with an award of compensatory and statutory damages for himself and all class members. 

Earlier this month, a pair of senators introduced a bill named the Fans First Act that has a goal of adding transparency to ticket prices and fees for tickets sold on the secondary marketplace. 

Have you purchased an electronic movie ticket for a film shown at a New York cinema? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiff is represented by Philip L. Fraietta and Stefan Bogdanovich of Bursor & Fisher PA. 

The Look Cinemas convenience fee class action lawsuit is DeSimone, et al. v. LOOK Brands, LLC, Case No. 7:23-cv-11144, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

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