NordVPN Lawsuit Claims Consumers ‘Tricked’ into Auto-Renewing Subscriptions

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

A proposed class action lawsuit claims that NordVPN has intentionally failed to clearly disclose to consumers that its subscriptions renew automatically, in violation of the Illinois Automatic Contract Renewal Act.

Get class action lawsuit and settlement news sent to your inbox – sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter.

According to the 49-page lawsuit, defendant Nord Security intentionally hides the fact that users’ NordVPN subscriptions will automatically renew, with consumers misled into believing they can sign up for “a discrete period of time.” Further, the case alleges Nord Security, which offers subscription-based online security and privacy products, including the NordVPN virtual private network, NordPass password manager and NordLocker encrypted cloud storage, makes the cancellation process exceedingly difficult.

The lawsuit claims that NordVPN employs “negative option” billing tactics, whereby the company interprets a customer’s silence or failure to take action to reject a product or service as acceptance—or continued acceptance—of an offer. However, the complaint argues that this by no means amounts to true, informed consent to continually renew NordVPN’s services.

“Due to the Company’s deceptive and unlawful negative option practices, many consumers who sign up for Nord Security’s product offerings including NordVPN, NordPass, and NordLocker ultimately end up paying for Nord Subscriptions that they do not want,” the class action lawsuit summarizes.

Related reading: NordVPN Auto-Renewing Subscription Lawsuits

The complaint alleges that NordVPN uses four primary methods of deception or obfuscation in its sign-up, billing and cancellation processes, including:

• Failing to clearly explain the full terms or length of the subscription to the consumer, offering what appear to be time-limited plans while “burying” information about recurring fees in a drop-down menu where consumers will not see the details unless they click on the drop-down feature;
• Employing a “deceptive and highly unconventional charging practice” whereby subscriptions are renewed 14 days before the end of the current subscription period, which the case argues is well before any reasonable consumer would expect a renewal to occur and serves to lock consumers into another year of the service by allowing them to assume they have more time to cancel;
• Making the cancellation process is difficult and complicated and requiring customers to find the on-off toggle for auto-renewal “buried” under four layers of seemingly unrelated pages in the account settings section, rather than having a clear, conspicuous cancellation function; and
• Failing to provide sufficient notification of subscription renewal at least 30 days and no more than 60 days prior to the date of automatic renewal, and to provide a “mechanism for cancelling the contract” in the renewal notice.

Additionally, the complaint alleges that the disclosures made about NordVPN’s automatic renewal policy are inadequate and displayed inconspicuously with grey text on a white background, with no visual connection to the purchase at hand.

“It is not happenstance that Nord Security’s customers are paying for unwanted subscriptions,” the case asserts. “This outcome is the result of Nord Security’s intentional and bad-faith design choices.”

Per the suit, NordVPN is well aware that it is deceiving its customers, especially given the hundreds of consumer complaints that can be found online and the high rate of chargebacks the company receives when consumers initiate disputes over unwanted Nord transactions through credit card companies and payment processors.

The NordVPN class action lawsuit seeks to represent any Nord Security customer in Illinois who was automatically enrolled in and charged for at least one month of any Nord Security subscription within the applicable statute of limitations.

Learn all about the legal process: What is a class action lawsuit?