- Surfshark has been killed by a category action sued
- A California customer accused Surfshark of nominating him in renewal without his consent
- Most popular VPN providers are equal working Auto-Renewal System-One practice lawyer accuses California’s consumer law of going against the law
A California customer has pulled Surfshark to court, accusing the VPN provider of allegedly charging “illegal” auto-reintegration fees.
Vadi Arvin Garcia filed a class action case Surfshark On July 17, at the Central District Court in California, arguing that the VPN firm enrolled him in renewal of a three -year long plan without his consent. Garcia has brought the case forward for herself and all other California consumers, who were charged illegal auto-renovation fees.
Despite a handful of exceptions, most Best VPN The market operates its membership according to the same auto-renovation systems. Two more providers, NordVPN And ExpressvpnIn fact, we are currently facing similar complaints in America.
Is Surfshark violating California law?
As stated trialGarcia bought two years of membership Virtual private network Service in May 2020, assuming that he was shopping for a time.
After the plan ended, however, “unknown to him and without his consent, Surfshark admitted him to an automated renewal plan,” reads the suit.
Surfshark accused Garcia for annual renovation in May 2022, 2023 and 2024 – according to the plaintiffs, “were illegal and should be returned.”
In particular, lawyers argue that Surfshark is in violation of its obligations California’s automatic renewal law (Arl). The law requires companies adopting auto-renewal payments to provide “positive consent” to provide “clear and specific” revelations about the auto-renovation scheme and nominate consumers. Surfshark, the trial claims, “violated these conditions in many ways.”
Surfshark is also accused of violating the false advertising law “by spreading misleading advertisements about the automatically renewed nature of Surfshark plans,” the lawyers wrote.
This is July 2025 trial Follows similar allegations Bring against Surfshark in 2024, always under the California law.
Techradar has approached Sursfhark for comments, but we are still waiting for the response at the time of publication.
Is VPNS AX AX Auto-Renewal Plans?
Surfshark is allegedly away from being the first popular VPN provider to face legal troubles in the US over the alleged misleading auto-renovation pricing.
Expressvpn is also facing a class action Right now in California, in fact, after hitting a hit with a similar legal complaint in June 2025.
Whereas Nordvpn has been taken to court At least four American states allegedly “illegal and misleading” auto-renovation practices.
The Vitails McInturaf Palikovich Law firm submitted legal complaints from four former NordVPN customers from April 2024 – and now urge all NordVPN users who were charged for membership, they did not want to come forward.
The same law firm has also investigated the first expressVN in auto-enrollment practices against the first expressVN. Proton VPN And Private Internet Access (PIA)Nevertheless, the lawyers did not file a case against these providers.
We have to wait to see what the judges eventually decide, but these legal actions clearly indicate that VPN firms may require changes in managing their payment membership. Now the question is whether the providers are ready to amend their business models and dig at auto-renewal schemes for good.
