In an age where people are paying and utilizing services online, a certain standard which is regulated by law and expected by clientele needs to be met. That is why when a man from Illinois has decided to sue an online service for paying monthly fees for a service which he is claiming had multiple inactive or dead profile accounts.
In the complaint which is filed in a Federal Court, the service repeatedly asked him pay between $9.99 and $19.99 per month to connect with users who “liked” his profile after the creation of a free account, upon which, he immediately began receiving messages from other users who had supposedly liked his profile. To learn the identities of those who had liked his account, however, the plaintiff was prompted to pay for a premium, or “A-List,” service. The plaintiff alleges that right after the payment of $44.99, he knew something was amiss. Shortly thereafter, upon reviewing the profiles of individuals whose identities were previously hidden, the plaintiff allegedly discovered that most if not all of these people were associated with inactive or ‘dead’ accounts, making interaction or dating impossible.
It is alleged that the actions constitute a breach of contract and violate both the Illinois Dating Referral Services Act and the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act with potential to seek class-action status.
Unfortunately and unintentionally, the inactive user problem was supposedly caused by a software bug and the developers team is working on the issue. Whether this is a concealment of fraud and a plausible enough explanation will yet be seen and examined by the courts.
People don’t like being taken advantage of when paying for a service. This is why it is so important to ensure that the service meets up to the standards set by law and expectations of a customer must be taken into account. Dating referral services are to have written contracts with their customers that contain certain statutory requirements and prohibitions. It almost becomes unchartered waters since the internet was initially not designed with security protections or trust problems in mind. However, this has changed as corporations depending on online activity have all the incentive they need to solve problems tied to trust. For this reason, it is important for businesses to ensure of these goals and to protect themselves from a deceptive advertising lawsuit. A general rise in these sorts of claims will be most likely as lack of trust will not be a barrier to increased public reliance on the internet. What’s more is that companies that offer paid premium services online can come under scrutiny from class action plaintiffs, as well as federal and state authorities. In order to avoid such pitfalls, working knowledge of the regulatory laws and contract implementation is essential. That is why it is critical for business to consult and work with attorneys that are able to steer a business in the right direction.
Our Oak Brook, Illinois consumer rights private law firm handles individual and class action gift card, data breach, privacy rights, deceptive advertising, predatory lending, unfair debt collection, lemon law and other consumer fraud cases that government agencies and public interest law firms such as the Illinois Attorney General may not pursue. Class action lawsuits our law firm has been involved in or spear-headed have led to substantial awards totaling over a million dollars to organizations including the National Association of Consumer Advocates, the National Consumer Law Center, and local law school consumer programs. The Chicago consumer lawyers at Lubin Austermuehle are proud of our achievements in assisting national and local consumer rights organizations to obtain the funds needed to ensure that consumers are protected and informed of their rights. By standing up to consumer fraud and consumer rip-offs, and in the right case filing consumer protection lawsuits and class-actions you too can help ensure that other consumers’ rights are protected from consumer rip-offs and unscrupulous or dishonest practices.
Our Evanston and Auoroa consumer attorneys provide assistance in data breach, privacy violation, fair debt collection, consumer fraud and consumer rights cases including in Illinois and throughout the country. You can click here to see a description of the some of the many individual and class-action consumer cases our Chicago consumer lawyers have handled. A video of our lawsuit which helped ensure more fan friendly security at Wrigley Field can be found here. You can contact one of our Schaumburg and Bolingbrook consumer protection, gift card and data breach attorneys who can assist in consumer fraud, consumer rip-off, lemon law, unfair debt collection, predatory lending, wage claims, unpaid overtime and other consumer, or consumer class action cases by filling out the contact form at the side of this blog or by clicking here. You can also call us at 630-333-0333