By Lookout Staff
August 19, 2025 -- A Superior Court judge has ordered the nation's largest meal kit delivery service to pay $7.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a task force of California County prosecutors that includes the Santa Monica City Attorney's Office.
HelloFresh, headquartered in Germany, delivers weekly menus and ingredients to cook chef-curated recipes. The company accounts for approximately 75 percent of the U.S. meal kit delivery market.
Filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court, the consumer protection lawsuit against HelloFresh alleged that the company automatically renewed subscription plans without properly disclosing the terms or obtaining consent, City officials said.
The stipulated judgment signed by Judge Daniel T. Nishigaya requires HelloFresh to obey applicable laws, pay $6.38 million in civil penalties, $1 million as restitution to affected consumers and investigative costs, prosecutors said.
“Consumers who sign up for autorenewal services have a right to know the terms of the plan and decide for themselves if they want to consent to those terms,” said Santa Monica City Attorney Doug Sloan.
The lawsuit was filed by members of the California Automatic Renewal Task Force (“CART”), which includes the District Attorney’s Offices of Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz Counties.
According to the task force, the civil complaint alleged that HelloFresh failed to:
* Clearly and conspicuously disclose its subscription terms before collecting payment;
* Obtain consumers’ affirmative consent before charging their credit or debit cards;
* Provide a post-transaction acknowledgment containing the material terms of the subscription, or
* Offer an easy-to-use mechanism for cancellation.
"These practices allegedly resulted in consumers being unknowingly enrolled in ongoing payment plans that were difficult to terminate," according to prosecutors.
HelloFresh, which did not admit liability in the settlement, issued the following statement:
"We take our commitment to customer transparency very seriously, and our subscription model and cancellation policies have been consistently clear to customers throughout the whole customer journey," company spokesperson Abby Dreher said.
"While we deny any wrongdoing, we have cooperated fully with the coalition of California District Attorneys and have entered into a settlement agreement with them to resolve the matter amicably."
Headquartered in Germany, HelloFresh accounts for approximately 75 percent of the U.S. meal kit delivery market, prosecutors said.
