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"<p>\n\tTAMPA, Fla. (Legal Newsline) - SeaWorld Parks &amp; Entertainment was sued on Wednesday over allegations that it automatically renewed annual passes without consumers&rsquo; consent and didn&rsquo;t follow the wording of its own contract when confronted with excessive charges.<br />\n\t<br />\n\tA class action lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida details the allegations of lead plaintiff Jason Herman, a Florida resident who purchased a one-year adult EZPay to SeaWorld in Orlando and Busch Gardens in Tampa.\n</p>\n\n<p>\n\t<a href=\"http://legalnewsline.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/fowkes.jpg\"></a><br />\n\t<br />\n\tHerman expected his initial payment of $35.40 on March 18, 2013 to be followed by 11 additional monthly charges of the same amount. However, payments continued to be charged to his credit card through Sept. 18, he said.<br />\n\t<br />\n\tA SeaWorld customer service representative later told Herman the wording on the contract stated that any pass not paid for in less than 12 months would renew automatically on a month-to-month basis, the complaint says. The lawsuit contends that this wording was not included in confirming emails, receipts, tickets or passes, and that Herman&rsquo;s request for a refund was declined.<br />\n\t<br />\n\tThe lawsuit claims that two separate telephone conversations with SeaWorld customer service representatives failed to provide access to a contract with that wording. He later found it online.<br />\n\t<br />\n\tThe suit further claims that despite SeaWorld&rsquo;s allegedly hidden contract, the company was still not authorized to automatically renew the passes. In Herman&rsquo;s example, his pass was purchased on March 18, 2013, and the 11th subsequent payment was charged to his credit card on Feb. 18 &ndash; fully paying off the cost of the annual pass in 11 months.<br />\n\t<br />\n\tThe lawsuit proposes a class of SeaWorld customers from Florida, Texas, Virginia and California who continued to be charged for their EZpay passes after fully paying for them in less than 12 months.<br />\n\t<br />\n\tSeaWorld operates 11 theme parks in the United States and hosted 23.4 million guests in 2013 with more than $1.4 billion in revenues.<br />\n\t<br />\n\tAttorney Paul R. Fowkes and Ryan C. Hasanbasic are representing the plaintiffs.<br />\n\t<br />\n\t<em>U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida case number 8:14-cv-03028</em>\n</p>\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://legalnewsline.com/stories/510628200-seaworld-facing-class-action-over-annual-pass-renewals>