HelloFresh Hit with Class Action Over Automatic Subscription Renewals, ‘Dark Pattern’ Marketing Tactics

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A proposed class action alleges online grocery delivery service HelloFresh has illegally failed to provide certain disclosures and obtain affirmative consent before automatically re-upping consumers’ supposedly next-to-impossible-to-cancel subscriptions. 

The 38-page complaint alleges HelloFresh has run afoul of California’s Automatic Renewal Law, in particular by deliberately “relying on consumer confusion and inertia to retain customers, combat consumer churn and bolster its revenues.” 

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Under California’s Automatic Renewal Law, HelloFresh and other online retailers who offer automatically renewing subscriptions must, prior to purchase, obtain affirmative consent from a consumer, provide the complete terms of the auto-renewal offer in a “clear and conspicuous” manner and “in visual proximity” to the request for consent, and provide an acknowledgment that identifies an “easy and efficient” mechanism whereby a consumer can cancel their subscription, the lawsuit says. 

Per the case, HelloFresh checks none of the aforementioned boxes. No matter how a consumer subscribes to HelloFresh, whether through a mobile or desktop device, and irrespective of which plan they select, the company “fails to disclose the full terms of its auto-renewal program either before or after checkout, and it never requires the individual to read or affirmatively agree to any terms of service,” the complaint claims. 

As a result, the company’s meal kits tied to the automatically renewing subscriptions at issue are considered “unconditional gifts” by law, the suit asserts. 

As the lawsuit tells it, HelloFresh has “successfully implemented” the tactic of using “misleading dark patterns and deliberate omissions” as a means to retain customers and increase its market share. According to the complaint, HelloFresh’s recent growth in revenue and subscribers coincides with “a sharp decline in subscriber satisfaction” as the company’s online marketing has become “riddled with ‘dark patterns’” designed to trick consumers into doing things they don’t necessarily mean to do. 

The case alleges that HelloFresh’s apparent marketing trickery has led to an increase in “accidental or unintentional sign-ups” by consumers, many of whom face difficulty when attempting to cancel their subscriptions.

“Defendant’s utilization of these dark patterns – especially in conjunction with its failure to fully disclose the terms of its automatic-renewal programs … – has led to a reduction in churn rates by making it next to impossible for subscribers to cancel their HelloFresh Subscriptions,” the filing says. 

Per the case, HelloFresh’s alleged business practices have “drawn the attention and ire of customers across the country.” 

The lawsuit looks to cover consumers in California who, within the applicable statute of limitations period, incurred renewal fees in connection with HelloFresh subscription offerings. 

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