The Ontario Superior Court of Justice certified a class-action lawsuit against Intuit, the firm that owns the taxation software TurboTax, and a large segment of users may be eligible, the law firm leading the suit said.
The action was brought on behalf of all consumers who purchased the TurboTax online software since Jan. 1, 2015, to prepare and/or file their Canadian taxes, Toronto-based Rochon Genova said.
The lawsuit stems from an advertising campaign for TurboTax, where the software was advertised as “free,” the law firm said.
“For taxation years before 2021, Intuit advertised the software in Canada as free without qualification, including in television, print, online and social media campaigns using the tag line ‘free, free, free.’ Beginning with the 2021 taxation year, Intuit changed its advertising to state that the software was ‘free for simple tax returns,'” Rochon Genova said in a press release.
The plaintiff alleged that both of Intuit’s advertising campaigns were “false and misleading,” describing the company’s strategy as a “bait-and-switch” and “drip-pricing” scheme.
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“Intuit designed its software so that consumers only discovered they would have to pay after investing significant time entering their personal and financial information,” the firm alleged.
The company said it will continue to defend this matter.
“Intuit stands behind its advertising for TurboTax as truthful and transparent, and we will continue to defend this matter vigorously,” a spokesperson for Intuit said.
I had to pay. For all of them that said they were free.
IRS keep telling me I didn’t file but turbo tax file them on line. They made me pay ( IRS) money that I don’t owe.
And it’s a US owned company that’s doing this. Typical.
Turbo tax has always been free for me… maybe stop making 120k a year and begging for freebies? The only people who have had to pay make more money than everybody else.
Time invested? It takes like 20 minutes at most to file your taxes online.
They are open about what is free and what isn’t… Done my taxes free with them multiple times, easily. Never charged. If people got “wrongfully charged” lol.. That’s on them for not actually reading or choosing correctly.
Yeah, that sounds about right. It doesn’t tell you whether it’s free until AFTER you do all the work, at which point it’s worth $120 to not have to do it all a second time, so you just pay it. I hope I can see some settlement money.
Can the taxpayers who pay for all the “free” stuff file a class action lawsuit against the Government that uses “free” stuff to bribeb the “free” stuff voters to vote for the government to make us pay for more “free” stuff?