ADAM* Jones was baffled when he noticed a £9.99 charge come out his bank account for sports streaming website DAZN.
He had paid to watch a boxing match – KSI VS Tommy Fury – a few weeks earlier, but he hadn’t signed up for any kind of ongoing subscription – or so he thought.
The communications manager had clicked on a “pay per view” option to watch the fight, costing £19.99.
When he signed up, DAZN said he would also be signed up to a “monthly saver” plan too, including one month charged at just 1p, rising to £9.99 per month after.
Adam understood this to mean he could cancel before the first month was up and wouldn’t be charged again.
But instead, he had unwittingly locked himself into a 12-month contract – and he couldn’t get out of it.
It turned out the “monthly saver” plan was actually a fixed annual subscription, and in the small print of the contract, Adam had waived his legal right to a 14-day cancellation period.
When he had gone into his account to cancel the subscription immediately after the fight, he hadn’t realised it would only cancel at the end of the 12-month period.
“I found myself locked into an annual subscription which I repeatedly tried to cancel just days after being conned into it, but without any success,” Adam said.
“I’ve seen this is a widespread issue with loads of other people complaining about it online, but DAZN just says it’s in the T&CS.
“While that may be the case, it’s clearly duping people and it’s completely unethical.”
Adam is one of thousands of of furious sports fans who have unwittingly signed up to year-long subscription when they thought they were paying for a one-off viewing on DAZN.
DAZN is a streaming platform which lets users watch sports matches they might not be able to find elsewhere, and one of its big attractions is its boxing matches.
You need a subscription to use DAZN, with the site offering monthly or annual contracts.
But some of its biggest fights have a “pay per view” sign-up option.
When you go to pay, it is described as “pay per view” and says users will then be rolled onto a “monthly saver” pass, getting their first month for a discount – in Adam’s case, for 1p.
The Sun has now learned that “pay per view” in this case means users must pay a one-off premium to watch the match on top of their subscription costs – but this is not how many users have understood it.
Meanwhile, thousands of users have complained they believed the monthly saver plan was a rolling monthly contract, rather than a year-long subscription.
DAZN says on its website that you can cancel your subscription whenever, but your contract will end after the “billing cycle”, meaning you are locked into paying for 12 months, costing almost £140.
During an email exchange with Adam, seen by The Sun, a spokesperson for DAZN said the confusion around its subscription offering “is an issue we are aware of” and that the business has already made improvements to “avoid further customer confusion”.
However, every day, more and more users are still complaining online that they have been caught out by the confusing “pay per view” and “monthly saver” terminology.
DAZN said that I had signed an annual membership and had to pay until the end of it – effectively costing me hundreds of pounds to watch one fight
DAZN user
Hundreds of furious reviews have been left online by users who say they didn’t understand they had been locked into a 12-month subscription.
A staggering 97% of the 3,730 reviews left for DAZN on Trustpilot gave the platform a one star rating, with the majority complaining they didn’t understand what they signed up for.
One angry user posted on Trustpilot last week: “I was trying to watch a fight that I thought was a one off payment.
“I was then shocked to see that they have continued billing me for months.
“I spoke to them [DAZN] about cancelling with immediate effect and that I had not, to my knowledge, signed up to membership.
“They then said that I had signed an annual membership and had to pay until the end of it – effectively costing me hundreds of pounds to watch one fight.”
Angry customers also say it’s near-impossible to contact DAZN to cancel their contracts, even though the website says accounts can be cancelled easily.
Adam told The Sun he went round in circles trying to get his subscription cancelled before escalating his complaint via official email channels.
Another customer posted on Trustpilot on July 31: “If you buy a pay per view sporting event, in my case Fury Vs Usyk, they lock you into a year contract unawares, charging you £14.99 per month indefinitely.
“You cannot get in touch with a operator, if you do they wait 20 minutes for each reply for you to grow tired and simply say they can’t do anything as you are in a contract. No other platform behaves like this.”
Customers who sign up to a subscription service or contract should have a 14-day cooling off period under the Consumer Rights Act.
This means they have 14 days to cancel and get their money back in full, and they should be made aware of this when they sign up.
However, under DAZN’s terms and conditions, its customers agree to waive their legal right to this, meaning they cannot get out of a contract under any circumstances.
When The Sun spoke to DAZN, a spokesperson confirmed that there is no way to exit the 12-month contract once it’s started, even where customers didn’t understand what they were signing up for.
Experts say customers should always have a legal right to exit contracts within a cooling off period, while government rules say cancelling a contract should be “easy and simple”.
Consumer disputes expert Martyn James explained: “Under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill, which became law as of 24 May 2024, customers should be given clear information about what they are signing up to before entering into a subscription.
“The contract should also allow customers to exit a subscription in a straightforward way, without having to take any steps that are not reasonably necessary. This should be one simple communication.”
It is understood that DAZN is now changing the name of its “monthly saver” plan to a “12 month contract” to avoid confusion.
Responding to this article, the spokesperson for DAZN said: “DAZN gives fans flexible and accessible ways to sign up.
“Pay Per View events are only available with a subscription, and can be purchased at the same time as signing up.
“Customers can choose monthly or annual subscriptions, with terms and conditions accessible and clear throughout the process.
“We value and listen to feedback, and look to constantly improve our customer experience, making numerous changes over the past 12 months.
“These include limited retention offers and swift routes to cancellation, should that be a customer’s ultimate preference and applies to the subscription they bought.”
*name changed on request
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