A $1.5 million class action settlement has been reached with SeaWorld, which was accused by two San Diego residents of failing to properly notify them that their annual passes to the marine park would be automatically renewed.
The settlement, which still needs formal approval by the San Diego Superior Court, specifically applies to any California resident who purchased an annual pass to the San Diego park online on or after Feb. 28, 2019. Further, in order to qualify for a payout, passholders had to have had their passes automatically renewed after the initial 12-month period ended on or before Feb. 28 of this year and did not receive a refund for the first auto-renewal charge.
If approved by the court — a hearing date has been set for Aug. 15 — net proceeds from the settlement will be distributed on a pro rata basis to each member of the settlement class. There are an estimated 141,358 members of the class. Those eligible for a payout will not have to fill out a claim form. They will be identified through SeaWorld’s records.
As part of the negotiated agreement, SeaWorld has admitted no wrongdoing and maintains that it complied with all applicable laws. A Q&A provided on the website for the settlement agreement notes that “the court has not made any determination as to which party is right and has not found that SeaWorld engaged in any wrongdoing or violated any laws. Instead, the Named Plaintiff and Defendants have agreed to a settlement to avoid the risk, cost, and time of continuing the lawsuit.”
The settlement originated with San Diegans Daniel Blanco and Christopher Lomelli who purchased passes at different times in 2021.
The original complaint states that Blanco bought two SeaWorld San Diego Silver Annual Passes for his wife and himself during a Black Friday sale and opted for a monthly payment plan over 12 months.
At the time of his purchase, he alleged that SeaWorld did not disclose in a clear manner that the purchase agreement would continue until he canceled, that recurring charges would be on his original payment, and that the amount would exceed that of the initial purpose.
The failure to disclose such information is a violation of the California Business and Professions code, the lawsuit alleged.
“When Plaintiffs and Class Members discovered the illegal renewal fees, Defendants’ cancellation process made it difficult to cancel and thus delayed their ability to terminate the pass,” stated the class action statement, which was filed in February of 2023. Such deceptive practices have officially been labeled as “dark patterns” by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
“In September 2022, the FTC released a report shining a light on how companies are increasingly using manipulative digital design practices known as ‘dark patterns’ that trick or manipulate consumers into making choices they would not otherwise have made and that may cause harm, such as signing up for automatically renewing purchases or subscriptions.”
The resolution of the lawsuit comes less than a year after a settlement was reached between SeaWorld and the city of San Diego over a longstanding rent dispute. Earlier this year, the city received a check for $8.5 million to settle a lawsuit it had filed against the park seeking back rent, plus interest and penalty fees totaling more than $12 million. The two parties ultimately agreed to a settlement of $8.5 million, which is close to the $8.8 million that city officials originally said was unpaid.
