Class Action Suit Accuses Microsoft Of Double-Billing Customers For Xbox Live

An Xbox Live customer has filed a class-action suit
against Microsoft, claiming the company renews subscriptions and
double-bills its customers without consent.

Indiana-based plaintiff Ryan Graves claims in the filing [PDF] that Microsoft's pre-paid subscriptions are "governed by vague and onerous terms of use," says the Courthouse News Service.

Graves explains that in his own particular case, he let his Xbox Live
subscription expire by declining to update his credit card information;
when he renewed his account several months later with a new credit card,
Microsoft charged him for both a new subscription and the subscription
that had previously expired.

According to the court filing, Microsoft told Graves that the issue was
"not a mistake," and said he would receive two years of Xbox Live
service, as the charges covered both his manual service renewal, and his
pending automatic renewal from the previous subscription.

Graves refused to accept Microsoft's response, as he says did not order a two-year subscription.

In the class-action suit, Graves seeks restitution, statutory, treble
and punitive damages for breach of contract, unjust enrichment,
conversion and violation of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act, and wants
Microsoft to "reverse all unlawful, unfair, or otherwise improper
charges, and to cease and desist from engaging in further unlawful
conduct in the future."

Earlier this year, PlayStation 3 manufacturer Sony became embroiled in a class-action suit,
as the Rothken law firm accused the company of harming its 77 million
PSN customers in "one of the largest data breaches in the history of the
internet."