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Surfshark has been hit by a class action lawsuit over alleged "illegal" auto-renewal fees A Californian customer accused Surfshark of automatically enrolling him in renewal without his consent Most popular VPN providers employ similar auto-renewal systems – a practice lawyers allege to go against California's consumer law A Californian customer has dragged Surfshark into court, accusing the VPN provider of charging him allegedly "illegal" auto-renewal fees. Plaintiff Arvin Garcia filed a class action lawsuit against Surfshark in California's Central District Court on July 17, arguing that the VPN firm enrolled him in three one-year-long plan renewals without his consent. Garcia has brought the case forward for himself and all other California consumers who happened to be charged illegal auto-renewal fees. Despite a handful of exceptions, the majority of the best VPNs on the market operate their subscriptions according to similar auto-renewal systems. Two more providers, NordVPN and ExpressVPN , are, in fact, facing similar complaints in the US right now. Is Surfshark breaching California's law? (Image credit: Unsplash / Tingey Injury Law Firm) As stated in the lawsuit , Garcia purchased a two-year subscription for the virtual private network (VPN) service in May 2020, believing he was making a one-time purchase. After the plan expired, however, "unbeknownst to him and without his consent, Surfshark enrolled him in an automatically renewing plan," reads the suit. Surfshark supposedly charged Garcia for yearly renewals in May of 2022, 2023, and 2024 – automatic charges that, according to the plaintiff's lawyers, "were illegal and should be refunded." Specifically, lawyers argue that Surfshark is in breach of its obligations under California's Automatic Renewal Law (ARL). The law requires companies adopting auto-renewal payments to provide "clear and conspicuous" disclosures about the auto-renewal plan and obtain "affirmative consent" to enroll consumers. Surfshark, the lawsuit claims, violated these terms in "multiple ways." Surfshark is also accused of breaching the False Advertising Law "by disseminating misleading advertisements concerning the automatically renewing nature of Surfshark plans," wrote lawyers. This July 2025 lawsuit follows similar accusations brought against Surfshark in 2024, always under California law. TechRadar has approached Sursfhark for comments, but we are still waiting for a response at the time of publication. Should VPNs axe auto-renewal plans? In 2022, Mullvad VPN decided to axe all recurring subscriptions in the name of users' privacy (Image credit: Getty Images) Surfshark is far from being the first popular VPN provider to face legal troubles in the US over allegedly deceptive auto-renewal pricing. ExpressVPN is also facing a class action in California right now, in fact, after being hit with a similar legal complaint in June 2025. While NordVPN has been taken to Court over alleged "illegal and deceptive" auto-renew
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Original reporting: Latest from TechRadar US in News,opinion