Pop superstar Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty lingerie company will pay $1.2 million to settle a lawsuit by Santa Clara County and four other California local governments alleging the firm defrauded customers.
The governments accused Savage X Fenty of deceiving consumers by automatically enrolling them in a “VIP” program with automatic recurring credit card charges. The scheme allegedly broke California’s just-tightened automatic-renewal law, according to the suit filed in August in Santa Clara County Superior Court by Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles and San Diego counties, and the city of Santa Monica.
When people bought products on Savage X Fenty’s website, they would automatically — and fraudulently — be enrolled in a recurring paid VIP membership, leading to credit card charges that would be repeated until the customer cancelled the membership, the suit alleged.
