- ClassPass is facing a lawsuit alleging it lied about having partnerships with businesses.
- The suit claimed "dozens" of businesses in 20 states were listed on ClassPass without their consent.
- ClassPass even allegedly wrote fake descriptions and used stock photos in the listings.
ClassPass, a fitness and beauty services aggregator, is facing a new class-action lawsuit accusing it of falsely claiming to have partnerships with "countless" businesses.
Leeah Nails, a New Jersey-based nail salon that brought the suit, said that it "discovered dozens of businesses in at least 20 different states whose services were being listed on ClassPass without their knowledge or consent."
The lawsuit, filed Friday in a federal court in New York, accused ClassPass of false advertising and affiliation, as well as unfair competition by deceiving "potential customers into purchasing ClassPass memberships instead of directly purchasing services" from the businesses themselves.
ClassPass did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
ClassPass works by giving paying subscribers credits each month that they can use to book fitness classes or other services, through the ClassPass app, with businesses that are ostensibly part of the company's "partner network."
But Leeah Nails claimed that ClassPass had listed the salon as one of those partners without its knowledge or consent.
According to the lawsuit, Leeah Nails only found out that it was listed on ClassPass after a customer tried to use services that they had booked through ClassPass.
ClassPass' listing for Leeah Nails showed a company description, appointment times, services offered, and an option to "see pricing" for those services. The only issue, according to the lawsuit: Leeah Nails didn't write that description, or list its available appointments or services, and the "see pricing" link went not to its own website, but to ClassPass's membership sign-up page.
Leeah Nails said it contacted ClassPass about the listing multiple times, but that its customer service team refused to help because the company didn't have an account with ClassPass.
"There are thousands of falsely listed ClassPass Partners online. And just a simple search of the ClassPass website demonstrates that in all major markets, and even smaller locations, ClassPass contains dozens of false listings of partners," often times with stock photos and copycat company descriptions, the lawsuit claimed.
An attorney for Leeah Nails told Vice News, which earlier reported the lawsuit, that he believes ClassPass bypassed its typical outreach to potential partners in an effort to paint a rosier picture of its growth - which had taken a hit during the pandemic.
"All of a sudden, ClassPass looks like it has a huge network of wellness services," Janove told Vice, adding: "But in truth, they don't actually have association with countless [numbers] of these businesses."