The Quebec Superior Court has authorized a second class action lawsuit against Tesla, this time over the company’s Premium Connectivity subscription. In September we told you about the first class action lawsuit against the automaker, that one dealing with paint issues on the Model 3 and Model Y.
Premium Connectivity is a great package that most customers would find reasonably priced at C$13.99 per month in Canada, or US$10 (or an annual subscription of US$99) in the US. Included features range from having live traffic visualizations on the map to music streaming with Slacker and Tunein, as well as video streaming through YouTube, Netflix, and Disney+. Premium Connectivity also provides owners with access to certain features in the app like being able to watch live footage from Sentry Mode.
New owners get a free trial of Premium Connectivity, which currently is 1 month, but used to be 1 year. There was however a period of time back between 2018 and 2020 when Tesla marketed and sold their cars in Canada with Premium Connectivity included, with no mention of time limited trial anywhere during the ordering process or in the purchase order agreement. Despite this the company started charging owners the monthly fee if they wanted to continue to use the service.
That led to a class-action lawsuit being filed in Quebec over the “unilateral modification or termination of the connectivity service for Tesla vehicles purchased in Quebec.” Tesla appeared to preemptively respond to the lawsuit by giving lifetime subscriptions to some owners, which the company described as a “gesture of goodwill.”
Despite this, the Quebec Superior Court has authorized the class action lawsuit to proceed. Superior Court Judge Lukasz Granosik ruled that the lawsuit can proceed and can include all customers who ordered a Tesla vehicle between July 1, 2018 and May 18, 2020.
If the lawsuit is successful Tesla will have to pay $2,500,000 in punitive damages, which will be shared among the parties. Tesla will also have to give a lifetime Premium Connectivity subscription to those included in the lawsuit.
If you want to join, you are asked to contact CGB Avocats in Montreal and CBL Avocats in Granby.
You can read the full decision below, which is in French. If an English version is released, we will update the article to include it.
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