CookUnity Facing Class Action Lawsuit Over Alleged Automatic Meal Delivery Subscription Renewals

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges that CookUnity has unlawfully enrolled consumers in automatically renewing meal delivery subscriptions without providing requisite disclosures, obtaining consent, or providing a simple cancellation mechanism.

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The 19-page lawsuit claims that the online food delivery service deploys a deceptive subscription “trap” by advertising low introductory rates for weekly plans before then enrolling consumers in recurring weekly subscriptions at rates “double or more” than those advertised, without first providing the terms of automatic renewal and obtaining consent as required by law.

“For example, if a customer orders 8 meals for the first week, they will be charged $53.96 plus tax and a $9.99 delivery fee,” the lawsuit states. “After the first week, the subscription will automatically renew at $117.91 per week.”

The suit further alleges that once consumers are enrolled in a potentially unwanted subscription, CookUnity makes it unreasonably difficult to cancel.

“Consumers like Plaintiff are being tricked into signing up for recurring plans,” the class action lawsuit alleges.

According to the filing, California’s Automatic Renewal Law requires businesses to disclose automatic renewal terms “in a clear and conspicuous manner before the subscription or purchasing agreement is fulfilled.” Such disclosures, the case states, must be in “visual proximity” to the offer, and they must include the amount consumers will be charged for each renewal and how to cancel the subscription, among other details.

The case contends that CookUnity has run afoul of California law by failing to clearly and conspicuously disclose that prices for its weekly meal plans increase substantially after the first renewal, or obtain affirmative consent to the subscription terms.

The lawsuit alleges that any disclosures about the CookUnity price increases are “hidden from view” at the bottom of the defendant’s online checkout page and are not readily visible before a consumer places an order or pays. 

Per the filing, the ARL also requires companies to provide consumers with a “cost-effective, timely, and easy-to-use mechanism” to cancel a subscription. The complaint alleges that once a consumer is enrolled in an automatically renewing CookUnity meal subscription, they must navigate a “confusing” path in the CookUnity app, which does not provide a single-step cancellation mechanism, to cancel it.

To make matters worse, the case claims, CookUnity deceptively presents consumers seeking to cancel with multiple retention offers that exist only to “obstruct and delay” their ability to end a meal delivery subscription. 

The CookUnity class action lawsuit seeks to cover all California consumers who, within the applicable statute of limitations, purchased a meal delivery subscription from CookUnity and had the subscription automatically renewed at a higher rate than the first week.

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