Bloomberg will pay $500,000 in penalties and refund subscribers after New York Attorney General Letitia James found it failed to tell customers that a $1.99 promotional rate would jump to $39.99 a month, her office announced on Nov. 2. The Bloomberg subscription settlement is an assurance of discontinuance, an agreement filed with the attorney general.
A news company agreed to pay for how it sold its own news. The price gap is the reason the case exists: $39.99 is about 20 times $1.99, a calculation from the two figures.
What the Attorney General Found
The attorney general’s office found that Bloomberg News failed to clearly notify consumers that Bloomberg.com subscriptions increased dramatically in price. Its findings add that terms were not clearly disclosed, that buyers received no required acknowledgment after purchase and that notice before auto-renewal was insufficient.
Annual subscribers were not refunded despite a promise they could cancel at any time, the office found. It also found that since 2021 the website and chatbot walked users through a series of questions and options before they reached cancellation, and that Bloomberg did not tell subscribers until 2023 that they could cancel by email or phone.
The Prices Subscribers Paid
A new subscriber paid $1.99 a month for three months, then $39.99 a month. A subscriber who stayed the full year paid $365.88, assuming no other price change, a calculation from the posted rates. The office cited another plan that went from $1.99 a month to $34.99 a month. Students faced the largest jumps. A student annual plan cost $99 and rose to $415 after graduation, an increase of $316, and some student plans rose by more than $300. Other annual subscribers saw increases of more than $100 at renewal.
Refunds and Required Changes
Refunds go to eligible subscribers in New York and across the country, including people who complained to Bloomberg, the Federal Trade Commission, the Better Business Bureau or the attorney general’s office, and people who canceled after an auto-renewal at a higher price. Bloomberg must also provide clearer disclosures, obtain affirmative consent, send compliant acknowledgments with cancellation instructions and give adequate notice before renewal.
James said that tricking consumers into costly subscriptions with misleading terms is illegal in New York. The $500,000 penalty goes to the state, and the refunds to subscribers are a separate part of the remedy. The attorney general’s announcement gives no claim deadline or refund total.
