- Nordvpn faces collective demand in the United States for alleged self-rising practices “deceptive and illegal”
- An American law firm has already brought demands on behalf of four plaintiffs so far
- The automatic renewal system used by NordvPN is not different from that used by other important VPN suppliers
A law firm in the United States has filed a collective claim against Nordvpn about the alleged “deceptive and illegal” self-rival practices.
The demand, which is still active at the time of writing, also accuses Nordvpn of making it difficult for consumers to cancel their subscriptions.
Despite some exceptions, almost all the best VPNs in the market have a similar automatic renewal system to handle user subscriptions.
Four legal complaints
Wittels Mcinturff Palikovic is the main legal firm behind the ongoing class action against Nordvpn SA, Tefincom SA D/B/A NORDVPN and Nordsec BV
As mentioned, class action questions how the supplier manages user subscriptions.
Specifically, lawyers are accusing Nordvpn of using “deceptive and illegal and illegal” automatic renewal “to deceive customers to pay without knowing it for unwanted and faces,” the main page of the class action is read.
The demand also accuses the provider of using the so -called “dark patterns” when customers seek to cancel their subscriptions. These refer to deceptive design techniques aimed at manipulating user actions.
“As a result, the demand claims that Nordvpn customers paid dozens of millions of dollars more than they would have done if NordvPN had not used deceptive and illegal automatic renewal practices,” the lawyers concluded.
Wittels Mcinturff Palikovic has already filed legal complaints on behalf of four former Nordvpn clients so far, and seeks compensation of up to $ 100 million.
The first case that Techradar could find dates back to April 2024 and was presented in the Northern District of California. Last year there were also two more cases, one in the west district of North Carolina in July and another in November in a Federal Court of Colorado. Nordvpn was dragged to the court again in the South New York district last March for the same reasons.
In one of these cases (July 2024), accusations against NordvPN also include umbrella practices around cancellations during the 30 -day money return guarantee period.
According to the lawyers, “Nord Security did not properly reveal the plaintiff who would retain his payment of $ 131.76 despite his cancellation during the 30 -day trial unless he requested a refund affirmatively.”
It is worth noting that, in at least two cases, NordvPN has already issued a reimbursement to the plaintiffs for unwanted subscription charges.
What Nordvpn is saying
When Techradar approached him, a NordvPN spokesman said the company meets legal requirements, while striving to provide excellent customer experience.
“Our automatic renovation practices are clear and direct. We are and we have always been very clear about the recurring nature of our services, and we also send load reminders to customers with long -term recurrent subscriptions,” Nordvpn said in a statement.
“Our goal is to provide our customers with the services they use and enjoy every day; therefore, as a customer service issue, we can issue reimbursements even if customers have exceeded the 30 -day backup guarantee window. That said, two of the customers who brought demands had received reimbursements before demanding.”
Class action is still active at the time of writing, and lawyers urge all Nordvpn customers who were charged for a subscription that they did not want to contact.
The Wittels Mcinturff Palikovic firm has previously opened research on automatic registration practices against Expressvpn, Proton VPN and private Internet access (PIA).
However, no demand was ever filed against these suppliers.
If you are looking to register to obtain a VPN service, but you do not want them to be blocked in automatic renewal subscriptions, I recommend you investigate Mullvad VPN. In addition to being one of the safest VPNs in the market, the supplier eliminated all recurrent subscriptions in 2022 to better preserve user privacy.
