Sellers

INTRODUCTION

JustAnswer LLC (JustAnswer) appeals from an order denying its petition to compel arbitration. Tina Sellers and Erin O’Grady (together, Plaintiffs) used the JustAnswer website to submit a single question to an “expert” for what they believed would be a one-time fee of $5, and JustAnswer automatically enrolled them in a costlier monthly membership. After discovering additional charges to their credit cards, Plaintiffs filed a class action lawsuit against JustAnswer, alleging it routinely enrolled online consumers like them in automatic renewal membership programs without providing “clear and conspicuous” disclosures and obtaining their “affirmative

consent” as mandated by the Automatic Renewal Law (Bus. & Prof. Code,1 § 17600 et seq.; the ARL). (§ 17602, subds. (a)(1) and (a)(2).) Seeking to avoid the class action litigation, JustAnswer filed a petition to compel individual arbitration. JustAnswer claimed Plaintiffs agreed to their “Terms of Service,” which included a class action waiver and a binding arbitration clause, when they entered their payment information on the website and clicked a button that read, “Start my trial.” The following textual notice appeared in…