Image by Lily Padula

The parent company of dating sites JDate and Christian Mingle will repay customers whose subscriptions were automatically renewed or who were denied refunds, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Spark Networks USA agreed to pay $500,000 in penalties and up to $985,000 in restitution. It will also edit its website to become more transparent, according to the Times.

The L.A.-based company had been renewing payments without warning its customers. This goes against federal and state law — California specifically enacted a stricter Automatic Renewal Law in July, which requires that e-commerce sites “notify consumers about how to cancel the auto-renewal before they are charged,” according to the website of California law firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

The ruling states that California customers who paid membership fees between May 26, 2012, and Oct. 10, 2017, and were unknowingly charged for at least one automatic renewal may be reimbursed, the Times reported. The same goes for those who fruitlessly tried to cancel a service plan. Currently, those eligible will get $25 in restitution.

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re near the end of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount