- Surfshark has been hit by a trial of alleged “illegal” auto-renewal of fees
- A Californian Customer accused Surfshark of automatically enrolling him in renewal without his consent
- The most popular VPN providers use similar Auto-renewal systems — a practice attorneys claim to go against California’s consumer legislation
A California customer has pulled Surfshark into court and accused the VPN provider of charging him allegedly “illegal” auto renewal.
Plaintiff Arvin Garcia brought a lawsuit against Surfshark in California’s Central District Court on July 17, arguing that the VPN company signed him for three-year plan renewals without his consent. Garcia has led the case before herself and all other California consumers who happened to be charged illegal auto renewal.
Despite a handful of exceptions, most of the best VPNs on the market drive their subscriptions according to similar auto renewal systems. Another two providers, NordVPN and ExpressVPN, are actually facing similar complaints in the United States right now.
Is Surfshark violating California’s law?
As mentioned in the trial, Garcia bought a two -year subscription to the virtual private network (VPN) service in May 2020, believing he made a one -time purchase.
As planned, “unaware of him and without his consent, Surfshark signed him up in an automatic renewal plan,” the suit reads.
Surfshark allegedly charged Garcia for annual renewals in May 2022, 2023 and 2024 – Automatic charges that, according to the applicant’s lawyers, “were illegal and had to be repaid.”
Specifically, attorneys claim that Surfshark is in violation of its obligations under California’s Automatic Renewal Act (ARL). The law requires companies that adopt auto renewal payments to provide “clear and conspicuous” information about automatic renewal of the plan and get “affirmative consent” to enroll consumers. Surfshark, claiming the trial, violating these conditions in “several ways.”
Surfshark is also accused of violating the false advertising law “by communicating misleading advertisements regarding the automatic renewal of Surfshark plans,” lawyers wrote.
In July 2025, lawsuits on similar accusations brought against Surfshark in 2024 are always followed by the law of California.
Techradar has approached Surfhark for comments, but we are still waiting for a response at the time of publication.
Should VPNs AX Auto Renewal Plans?
Surfshark is far from being the first popular VPN provider facing legal issues in the United States over allegedly misleading auto-renewal prices.
ExpressVPN is also facing a class case in California right now, in fact after being hit with a similar legal complaint in June 2025.
While NordVPN has been brought to court over alleged “illegal and misleading” auto-renewal in at least four US states so far.
Wittels McInturff Palikovic Law Firm presented legal complaints on behalf of four former NordVPN customers since April 2024 -and now calls for all NordVPN users who were indicted for a subscription they did not want to come up.
The same law firm has previously opened investigations into auto-registration practices against ExpressVPN, together with Proton VPN and private Internet access (PIA). Still, lawyers filed no lawsuits against these providers.
We have to wait to see what the judges will eventually decide, but these legal actions clearly signal that there may be a need for a change in how VPN companies manage their payment subscriptions. The question now is whether providers are willing to change their business model and trench auto renewal plans for good.
