Meal kit delivery company HelloFresh has been ordered by a Californian court to pay $7.5m in penalties for making subscriptions hard to cancel.
The lawsuit was filed in Santa Clara County, alleging that the company misled Californian customers into auto-renewing subscriptions and didn’t offer an easy way to cancel their agreements.
As part of the settlement, approved earlier this month, HelloFresh is to pay $6.38m in civil penalties and $120,000 in investigative costs. $1 million will be paid out to impacted consumers.
“No company, no matter how big or well-known, is exempt from California’s consumer protection laws,” said Los Angeles County district attorney Nathan Hochman in a statement.
“We will aggressively pursue enforcement when businesses take advantage of consumers by failing to clearly disclose subscription terms, obtain proper consent, or provide a fair way to cancel. Consumers have a right to know what they’re signing up for, and they deserve better,” he continued.
Responding, HelloFresh told The Independent: ”We take our commitment to customer transparency very seriously, and our subscription model and cancellation policies have been consistently clear to customers throughout the whole customer journey.”
“While we deny any wrongdoing, we have cooperated fully with the coalition of California District Attorneys and have entered into a settlement agreement with them to resolve the matter amicably,” the spokesperson said.
Last month, HelloFresh launched a new skills range in the UK, designed to boost shoppers cooking ability.
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