A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is software or a service that encrypts data between your device and a remote server after which you connect to the broader Internet. This hides your online traffic and also allows you to pretend to be at a different location. People use VPNs for sensitive activities such as financial transactions or private activity, or to bypass restrictions. For example, you may want to stream movies from a service that offers the movies you want only in specific countries.
You can get a free VPN if you want to use it just a few times. There are those who say that some free VPNs may subject you to ads or even malware. You can also subscribe to a paid VPN service, and this is where our story today is.
VPNSecure is a VPN provider. The company was acquired in May 2023. According to an email from the new owners, the purchase included “the technology, domain, and customer database – but not the liabilities.” The new owners also said that the previous owners “did not disclose” that thousands of Lifetime Deals (LTD) had been sold through certain platforms.
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The company said they “discovered” this when a large portion of “resources were strained by these LTD accounts and high support volume from users who…provided no sustaining income.”
VPNSecure then began deactivating accounts that had been dormant for over six months.
Naturally, the customers did not like this. (The email starts with the customary “We hope this message finds you well.”).
The company then deactivated all Lifetime Deal accounts. They offered the LTD customers discounted subscriptions for 1 year or 3 years. The offer is only available until the end of May 2025.
In other words, customers bought lifetime deals only to have their accounts deactivated and get offered to pay again for a shorter subscription.
I would be very interested to hear what a court would rule on this matter.
Lessons
1) For customers, it appears you can outlive a “lifetime” deal.
2) If indeed the seller of the company, did not disclose what categories of customers existed, it can be argued that that was less than transparent. On the other hand, it can also be argued that it was not really their job to volunteer this information.
3) If indeed the new owners did not know about the LTD customers, then it seems they did not perform proper due diligence. If they knew but are only pretending not to have known, well…