Texas Business to Consumer auto renewal contracts [closed]

Question

I was tricked into signing an auto renewal contract for 2022 baseball select league. I told him I was only paying for the summer and fall season and he directed me to use option 1 as it was cheaper to pay for both seasons in full, which also has an auto renewal policy. I thought I was just signing a payment authorization form.

After looking through my email, I noticed I was never emailed the docusign contract and when I requested it while trying to understand why he was taking money out of my account he never responded. I then disputed the transaction with my credit card company and he sent them the contract that I had signed.

The contract states that I needed to send a cancellation notice on Sept 1 2022. He sent me an email on Oct 6 stating that he sent out communication to remind about the auto renewal that was going in affect Nov 1. I looked through my text messages and emails and did not see that Oct 6 communication.

The main question, does Texas law require the business of business to consumer contract, to provide the consumer notice before the auto renewal goes into affect?

Second, what are the laws regarding if the business fails to send an initial invoice/receipt and fails to send it upon request?

I appreciate any response!

Answer 1

does Texas law require the business of business to consumer contract, to provide the consumer notice before the auto renewal goes into affect?

If the contract has a clause regarding auto-renewal, the business is required to notify again about it only if the contract imposes on the business that obligation. I highly doubt that under Texas law this issue is any different.

Section 17.46 of the Texas Business and Commerce Code might be of interest to you. It outlaws conduct such as

(11) making false or misleading statements of fact concerning the reasons for, existence of, or amount of price reductions;

and

(24) failing to disclose information concerning goods or services which was known at the time of the transaction if such failure to disclose such information was intended to induce the consumer into a transaction into which the consumer would not have entered had the information been disclosed;

These two items would favor your position unless the terms & conditions were available to you when you followed the provider's suggestion that it would be "cheaper to pay for both seasons in full".

Since the contract gives a deadline for cancellation notice, the question is whether you were reasonably expected to be aware of the auto-renewal policy at all. Your understanding that you were "just signing a payment authorization form" and were "never emailed the docusign contract" is inconclusive as to whether the T&C were somehow available to you and you simply failed to read them. If that is the case, it is unlikely for you to have a viable claim against the provider.

what are the laws regarding if the business fails to send an initial invoice/receipt and fails to send it upon request?

As you can see from section 17.46, statutory law hardly ever gets too detailed about conduct expected from the parties. You need to ponder the extent to which the aforementioned items apply to your matter.

At first glance, disputing that the Oct 6 reminder was sent seems futile because it was past the cancellation deadline anyway. This issue would be relevant only if the T&C (1) did not specify the date when the renewal fee would take effect, or (2) require the provider to send the reminder.