New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday secured more than $740,000 from Cerebral, an online mental health provider, for maintaining a long and burdensome cancellation process and continuing to charge consumers after they tried to cancel.
An investigation by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) found Cerebral required subscribers to cancel by email, but then required consumers to take additional steps and wait at least a week for their cancellation request to be processed. The investigation also revealed that Cerebral manipulated online reviews by asking its employees to submit positive reviews and hide negative reviews. Thursday’s agreement requires Cerebral to pay more than $540,000 in restitution to more than 16,500 affected consumers and stop its deceptive and burdensome tactics.
Eligible consumers will be refunded in the original form of payment they used and do not need to take action to receive a refund.
“Making New Yorkers withstand stressful and extended delays to cancel a subscription for mental health care coverage is unacceptable,” said Attorney General James. “It is illegal and unfair to make consumers spend extra time or jump through hoops to try to cancel a subscription they no longer need. The law is clear that companies must make it easy and simple to end a subscription and my office will continue to hold them to that standard.”
