SoundCloud is facing a class action lawsuit over the strategies used in its digital subscription. The streaming music services platform has been accused of going against US legislation protecting consumer rights, increasing its rates without informing users. At the time of renewal, they have imposed these illegal prices and charged them without the consent of customers. The parties concerned are demanding that action be taken against these illegal tariff increases.
 SoundCloud Global Limited & Co
It’s okay if you haven’t heard of SoundCloud. This is a German streaming company. What the difference from other streaming platforms is that you can upload audio tracks and share them, which is a great attraction for those who are starting in the music world and want their songs to reach more people. It is a free platform, although some of its more advanced features require a monthly subscription of $9.99, although now it seems to have risen to $10.99.
Action law suit against SoundCloud
Led by Rutik Shinglot on February 21, a lawsuit was filed against SoundCloud in the federal court of the state of California. The grounds include violations of state and federal consumer protection laws. After suffering what Shinglot calls a scam, they allege that SoundCloud has violated both California’s Automatic Renewal Law (ARL) and the federal Restore Online Shoppers Confidence Act (ROSCA).
Why is that? Once expired, it is time to renew your subscription. Until now the monthly fee was $9.99, thus gaining access to all the features reserved for Premium profiles. However, in the latest subscription renewal, SoundCloud raised the monthly fee without warning customers in any way from $9.99 to $10.99 in April 2024. This is why they accuse the platform of having completely ignored he ARL and ROSCA laws. These laws of the state of California expressly state that companies have an obligation to inform their customers clearly and visibly about any changes in rates or other aspects of their customer service.
A bit too much?
At first glance, it may seem that filing a class action lawsuit for a monthly increase of 1 cent goes too far. However, it is not only our right as users to be informed and able to choose what contractual relationship to have with the company, but this has happened to thousands of people, which also translates into thousands of dollars that the company is pocketing thanks to a scam.
What does SoundCloud say?
According to Shinglot, the company defends itself by claiming that this information is collected in its section of Terms and Conditions, where it talks about a potential price increase. However, the representative of the plaintiff rejects this argument on the grounds that it was virtually unobtainable and certainly not clear. After the lawsuit, the company sent an email to users informing them about the price increase, but it was no longer useful. Shinglot stated that “under the California’s Automatic Renewal Law (ARL )and the federal Restore Online Shoppers Confidence Act (ROSCA), passive consent is legally insufficient and companies must obtain consumers’ affirmative consent for price increases”.
What awaits SoundCloud?
The voice of Shinglot is touring all states in search of as many affected people as possible, to be represented under the same demand and by the same professional, Jonas Jacobson, Simon Franzini and Christin Cho from Dovel & Luner LLP. There are other cases of lawsuits for violating consumer rights and profiting from scams. Four plaintiffs who fought against Sirius XM Radio (based in Oregon) are known to have announced a bogus gift rate.
Today we accept the terms and conditions of use for all platforms, apps or web sites without having read them, which can be incredibly dangerous. In fact, if we were to read and understand what we are accessing, we would probably never accept it and we would have no accounts on any platform. I’m not sure if it would be a utopia or a sudden consumer responsibility, but be that as it may, I don’t think we’ll ever see that scenario.
Find out which other companies are also facing lawsuits from their users!
