Class Action Lawsuit Claims Olly Adds Hidden Junk Fees to Online Orders

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges Unilever secretly adds unlawful “junk fees,” including a so-called “order protection fee,” to orders placed on Olly.com.

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The 20-page lawsuit accuses Olly manufacturer Unilever—a multinational company that produces personal care, household and beauty products both under their own name and through subsidiaries such as Olly Nutrition—of employing illegal “bait & switch” practices on Olly.com, namely by “obscuring” the true shipping cost of its products.

The plaintiff claims that the “order protection” fees on Olly.com are hidden and, once revealed at the very end of the checkout process, unreasonably difficult to opt out of, such that they qualify as junk fees.

“Thousands of e-commerce customers like [the plaintiff] have been assessed hidden shipping charges for which they did not bargain due to Olly’s deceptive tactics,” the case summarizes.

Per the complaint, one method of hiding the added fees is through the use of easily missed fine print, which the filing describes as “so tiny and in such light print such as to blend with the white background,” especially when compared to the bold, bright purple “CHECKOUT+” under which the fine print resides. The suit alleges the fine print on Olly.com is “intentionally designed to go unnoticed by consumers.”

Additionally, the plaintiff claims that it is unreasonably difficult for a consumer to discover the optional nature of the order protection for which they are being charged on Olly.com, as it appears as a mandatory cost during checkout, with no easy access to the function that toggles off order protection.

The filing cites the Federal Trade Commission’s Enforcement Policy Statement Regarding Negative Option Marketing, which notes that “[a] pre-checked box”—such as the sort Olly.com is accused of using—“does not constitute affirmative consent.”

Although Olly.com represents that free shipping is available on orders worth $49 and over, the proposed class action lawsuit alleges that this is false, as the “order protection” fees are actually intentionally mislabeled shipping fees.

“Because it is well known that American consumers prefer free or low-cost shipping costs, [Unilever] made an intentional decision to break shipping costs into two parts and thus disguise their decision to charge more for shipping,” the suit alleges.

Although Olly.com has, as of the filing of the suit, “ceased its practice of automatically adding its Order Protection fees to consumers’ carts,”­ in light a ban on such fees from its tech infrastructure manager Shopify in February 2025, the plaintiff claims that “this ban is too little, too late to help the hundreds of thousands of consumers already deceived and exploited.”

The Olly lawsuit seeks to represent anyone in the United States who has, within the applicable statute of limitations period, paid an “order protection” fee or other similar charge for a purchase from Olly.

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