Consumer Fraud Class Action Lawsuits

Consumers filed a class action against Celsius Holdings alleging its popular CELSIUS energy drinks were falsely marketed as containing 'no preservatives' when independent testing found the drinks contain citric acid, a substance widely used as a chemical preservative.

A landmark class action filed by the Authors Guild on behalf of thousands of novelists, journalists, and non-fiction writers alleges that OpenAI and Microsoft trained ChatGPT and related AI models on copyrighted books and articles without authorization or compensation.

Consumers filed a class action alleging Skechers falsely advertised its 'Hands Free Slip-ins' and other shoe lines with unsubstantiated health and biomechanical benefit claims, continuing a pattern of deceptive marketing the FTC had previously sanctioned the company for.

Hertz customers who legally rented vehicles were falsely reported as car thieves and subjected to wrongful arrest, imprisonment, and prosecution due to Hertz's systemic failure to update its vehicle return records, resulting in hundreds of documented wrongful arrests nationwide.

Optavia and its parent company Medifast are accused of operating a pyramid scheme disguised as a wellness coaching program while making false weight-loss and income claims to recruit tens of thousands of 'coaches' who lost money on the program.

Macy's and Bloomingdale's are accused of using fabricated 'original' reference prices and perpetual fake sale promotions to deceive consumers into believing they are receiving significant discounts on merchandise that was never genuinely offered at the advertised original price.

Lululemon is accused of falsely marketing its 'Silverescent' and anti-odor activewear as permanently antimicrobial when the silver-ion technology allegedly washes out after repeated laundering, rendering the premium claims deceptive to consumers.

Allstate is accused of using discriminatory pricing algorithms and ZIP code-based 'redlining' practices that systematically charged Black and Latino policyholders higher auto and home insurance premiums than similarly situated white customers.

Patients filed class action claims against telehealth startup Cerebral and competitor Done alleging the platforms aggressively and recklessly over-prescribed controlled stimulant medications including Adderall and Ritalin for profit, endangering vulnerable patients seeking mental health care.

Anthropic faces a lawsuit alleging false advertising regarding usage limits on its Claude Max subscription service. The case claims the company misrepresented the capabilities and limitations of its premium AI chatbot subscription to consumers.

Subscribers allege SiriusXM enrolled them in auto-renewing subscriptions without adequate disclosure, charged undisclosed fees, and deliberately made the cancellation process so difficult as to constitute an unlawful 'dark pattern' under federal and state consumer protection laws.

A class action alleging Google and YouTube illegally collected personal data from children under 13 and deployed targeted advertising toward minors in violation of COPPA, state privacy laws, and prior FTC consent decrees.

A class action alleging Apple secretly collects detailed personal and behavioral data from iPhone users even when privacy settings are turned off, violating California privacy law and federal statutes.

Southwest Airlines passengers allege the carrier engaged in deceptive fare advertising, charged undisclosed fees, and failed to provide timely cash refunds for cancelled flights — instead pressuring consumers to accept expiring travel vouchers in violation of federal and state consumer protection laws.

Consumers and content creators allege that OpenAI and affiliated AI companies scraped copyrighted personal data and creative works without consent to train commercial AI models, then profited by selling products built on that stolen content, violating copyright law and privacy statutes.

LinkedIn subscribers allege the Microsoft-owned platform enrolled users in auto-renewing Premium subscriptions using deceptive sign-up flows, obscured cancellation processes, and inadequate pre-renewal notices, in violation of federal and California consumer protection laws.

Consumers filed class action lawsuits against Adobe Inc. alleging the software giant used deceptive 'dark pattern' design tactics to hide a steep early-termination fee from subscribers signing up for annual Creative Cloud plans, then charged them hundreds of dollars when they attempted to cancel.

Comcast Xfinity customers filed a class action alleging the cable and internet giant systematically deceived consumers by advertising low promotional rates and then tacking on undisclosed "junk fees" — including broadcast TV fees, regional sports fees, and equipment charges — that dramatically inflated monthly bills.

Southwest Airlines faces a consumer class action lawsuit alleging it engaged in deceptive advertising and unfair business practices after abandoning its iconic "Bags Fly Free" policy in 2025 — a signature promise that was central to customer purchasing decisions for decades. Plaintiffs allege the abrupt policy reversal constitutes breach of contract and false advertising.

The Federal Trade Commission and private plaintiffs filed suit against Amazon alleging the company used manipulative 'dark pattern' interface designs to secretly enroll consumers in Prime subscriptions and deliberately obstruct cancellation, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in unauthorized charges.

LinkedIn members allege the platform enrolled them in auto-renewing Premium subscriptions without adequate disclosure and used private messages to train artificial intelligence models without users' knowledge or consent, in violation of federal and California consumer protection laws.

Passengers stranded or whose flights were cancelled during Southwest Airlines' catastrophic holiday 2022 operational meltdown filed a class action alleging the airline engaged in deceptive practices by selling tickets it knew or should have known it could not honor.

The Federal Trade Commission and consumers sued Amazon alleging the company used manipulative "dark pattern" design tactics to trick millions of customers into enrolling in Amazon Prime subscriptions without their informed consent and then deliberately obstructed their attempts to cancel.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission sued Adobe in June 2024 for allegedly hiding early termination fees and making it nearly impossible for subscribers to cancel their Creative Cloud plans, with parallel class action suits alleging deceptive 'dark pattern' enrollment tactics that trapped consumers in costly annual subscriptions.

Approximately 2 million travelers stranded or severely delayed during the December 2022 Southwest Airlines operational collapse are pursuing class action claims for reimbursement of expenses, consequential damages, and compensation beyond what the airline voluntarily offered.

Passengers affected by Southwest Airlines' catastrophic December 2022 holiday meltdown — which cancelled over 16,900 flights — are suing the airline for failing to provide timely refunds and adequate compensation for stranded travelers.

Class members who made purchases at Trader Joe's using a credit card or debit card during a specified period may receive an estimated payout of $102.45.

Consumers allege that food products marketed as "100% Natural" are deceptively labeled as they contain synthetic ingredients.

Class action alleging that hotel chains hide mandatory "resort fees" or "destination fees" until the final step of checkout, a practice known as "drip pricing".

Google agreed to destroy billions of data records and pay hundreds of millions of dollars to settle class actions alleging it secretly tracked users' browsing activity even in Incognito mode and collected location data without meaningful consent, affecting hundreds of millions of Americans.

Epic Games agreed to pay $520 million to settle FTC charges that Fortnite used dark patterns to trick players—including children—into making unwanted in-game purchases and collected personal data from minors without parental consent.

Apple agreed to pay up to $500 million to settle claims it secretly throttled the performance of older iPhones through iOS updates without disclosing that the slowdowns were intentional, deceiving millions of consumers into believing they needed new devices.

Amazon's Ring subsidiary agreed to a $5.8 million settlement after the FTC alleged that Ring allowed employees and contractors to access customers' private video footage without consent and failed to implement basic security safeguards.

Customers of collapsed crypto lending platform Celsius Network filed class actions alleging they were defrauded into depositing billions in digital assets, which were then misappropriated by executives before the platform froze withdrawals and filed for bankruptcy.

Subscribers to AI legal service DoNotPay filed a class action alleging the company falsely marketed its chatbot as equivalent to 'a robot lawyer' with the ability to handle complex legal matters, when in reality it was far less capable and had not been reviewed by any licensed attorney.

Celsius Network customers sued the collapsed crypto lending platform for fraudulently misrepresenting the safety of deposited funds before freezing all withdrawals in June 2022 and filing for bankruptcy. A reorganization plan worth approximately $4.7 billion was approved to repay creditors.

Volkswagen and Audi secretly installed "defeat device" software in nearly 600,000 diesel vehicles sold in the U.S. to cheat federal emissions tests, resulting in one of the largest automotive fraud settlements in history.

Wells Fargo customers sued the bank after it was revealed that employees secretly opened millions of unauthorized checking, savings, and credit card accounts in customers' names to meet aggressive internal sales quotas, damaging credit scores and generating fraudulent fees.

Google secretly tracked and stored users' location data even after they disabled Location History, violating their privacy expectations. A $62 million settlement was reached in 2023.