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Theme park giant Six Flags has allegedly improperly continued to collect monthly membership fees from at least hundreds of thousands of people across the country, as the amusement park operator attempts to ride out the COVID-19 pandemic, a new class action lawsuit claims.
On Oct. 8, attorneys with the firms of KamberLaw, with offices in Chicago and Denver, and Bursor & Fisher, of Walnut Creek, Calif., filed the class action in Cook County Circuit Court in Chicago.
They brought the suit on behalf of named plaintiff Ryan Strassburger, of Chicago.
According to the action, Strassburger, like many others across the country, has held a membership through Six Flags since 2019. Under the terms of such membership plans, in exchange for monthly fee payments, Strassburger and other members are allowed access to any Six Flags parks anywhere for no additional fee.
According to the complaint, Strassburger purchased the plan primarily to visit the Six Flags Great America theme park in north suburban Gurnee.
Six Flags operates 26 theme parks in the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
However, in the spring of 2020, nearly on the eve of the beginning of its 2020 spring and summer season, Six Flags abruptly closed all of its theme parks, and did not open Great America, in response to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated social and economic activity restrictions imposed by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and other governors and state governments across the country.
While many Six Flags parks ultimately reopened this summer, Great America has remained closed through the 2020 season.
However, throughout all of that time, Six Flags has continued to collect monthly payments from members’ bank accounts and credit cards, according to the lawsuit. Those fees range from $7.85 to $42 a month, depending on the membership plan chosen, and include a varying level of benefits and perks, in addition to free admission.
Six Flags, the complaint said, has “made the deliberate decision to bilk their customers on a monthly basis as the country is effectively shut down.”
Six Flags is “charging their customers full price while denying customers all access to all parks nationwide, while simultaneously refusing to reimburse customers for payments already made while parks are closed.”
The lawsuit accuses Six Flags on nine counts, including violation of the Illinois consumer fraud law, deceptive trade practices, negligent misrepresentation, conversion and breach of contract, among others.
The plaintiffs seek to expand the action to include a class of additional plaintiffs, potentially including hundreds of thousands of people nationwide who may have held a membership through Six Flags in 2020.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, including punitive damages and attorney fees. The lawsuit seeks a court order requiring Six Flags to stop charging its members while its parks are closed.