Santa Barbara and Other CA Counties Penalize Flower Company for Subscription Practices

People v. The Bouqs Company, Santa Barbara County Superior Court Case No. 23CV05515

District Attorney John T. Savrnoch announced [Thursday] that the online flower delivery service, The Bouqs Company, agreed to a Court-ordered judgment entered in late December arising from enforcement of the California Automatic Renewal Law (“ARL”) and False Advertising Law (“FAL”).

The ARL prohibits companies from automatically renewing subscriptions without making certain disclosures and without the consumer’s consent, and requires companies to provide a post-purchase acknowledgment that repeats the required disclosures and explains how to cancel the subscription. The FAL prohibits companies from misrepresenting their products and services, including the nature of their automatically renewing subscriptions.

The District Attorney’s Office of Santa Barbara County and the Santa Monica City Attorney’s Office were leads on the case for the California Automatic Renewal Task Force (“CART”), which also includes the District Attorney’s Offices of Los Angeles County, San Diego County, Santa Clara County, and Santa Cruz County.

CART’s investigation found that, pre-purchase, the company did not clearly and conspicuously disclose the required subscription terms and, post-purchase, failed to provide the required acknowledgment including clear and conspicuous disclosures of these same terms.

The lawsuit filed in Santa Barbara County Superior Court by the joint taskforce of prosecutors reached a stipulated resolution against The Bouqs Company that imposes an injunction and assesses $210,000 in civil penalties, $21,000 in cy pres restitution, and $9,000 in costs. The Bouqs Company cooperated in this resolution and agreed to bring its relevant business practices into compliance.

District Attorney Savrnoch thanks Deputy District Attorneys Morgan Lucas and Christopher Dalbey for their work on this case, and commented that “automatically renewing charges without disclosure are deceptive and harmful to consumers, and businesses that comply with the law are entitled to a level playing field with their competitors.”