Wittels McInturff Palikovic is investigating numerous complaints regarding Surfshark’s potentially fraudulent practice of automatically enrolling customers in pricey paid plans and charging recurring payments without consumers’ consent, then making it difficult and confusing to cancel those automatically renewing memberships to prevent consumers from stopping payments to Surfshark.
Upon investigation, evidence suggests that Surfshark may have lured users into paid subscription plans, deliberately hiding the fact that those plans will automatically renew without further actions by consumers. Evidence further suggests that customers who realize they are being charged without authorization are not able to cancel the unauthorized subscriptions through Surfshark. WMP has already filed class actions against companies that have engaged in similar deceptive practices and may file similar lawsuits on behalf of Surfshark users unwittingly roped into unwanted paid memberships to recover unauthorized charges and other damages.
Surfshark provides VPN and antivirus services that are intended to stop malware from infecting consumers’ computers, preventing privacy violations and identity theft. But consumers accuse Surfshark of making it intentionally difficult to cancel their subscriptions—a criticism that Surfshark has acknowledged, claiming they are “working on making the cancellation process easier.” Consumers accuse Surfshark customer service of refusing to cancel autorenewal and refusing to refund unintended charges and claim that Surfshark raises its prices before autorenewal payments without notifying its customers. Consumers further allege that Surfshark is a “scam” that uses “illegal” and “unethical” business practices. Consumers who try to cancel Surfshark report that they have to click through multiple screens with “deceptively designed” buttons that attempt to prevent customers from cancelling, with an easy-to-miss button. Consumers further report that during the cancellation process Surfshark provides a separate, prominent button that keeps the autorenewal function turned on.
If you were enrolled in Surfshark and were charged recurring payments without your knowledge or consent or found it unreasonably difficult to cancel your account, you are not alone! We urge you to contact a class action attorney at WMP for a free case evaluation. Should a lawsuit be brought, there is no cost or fee involved in joining the case. You can contact us by clicking here, calling (914) 775-8862, or emailing us at case@wittelslaw.com.
