MoviePass wasn’t shyt for this:
MoviePass actively tried to stop users from seeing movies, FTC alleges
The movie ticket subscription service, which promised customers the ability to see one film in theaters per day for $9.95 a month,
officially shuttered (for good) in 2019. However, according to a Federal Trade Commission complaint
released Monday, the company actively worked to prevent its customers from seeing movies in theaters.
MoviePass allegedly did this in three calculated and rather hilariously screwed-up ways.
First, according to an
FTC press release announcing the complaint, MoviePass invalidated users' passwords and claimed, falsely, that it had detected fraud related to their accounts. And we're talking about a lot of customers. According to the complaint, MoviePass did this to 75,000 users — many of whom where then locked out of their accounts as "MoviePass's password reset process often failed."
The FTC notes that MoviePass's then CEO Mitchell Lowe, along with the CEO of MoviePass's parent company, "knew of, ordered, or helped execute the password disruption program."
Second, MoviePass allegedly launched a "ticket verification program" that didn't work correctly, and, as a result, "blocked thousands of subscribers from using the service."
And, perhaps most outrageously, "MoviePass's operators used 'trip wires' that blocked certain groups of users—typically those who viewed more than three movies per month—from utilizing the service after they collectively hit certain thresholds based on their monthly cost to the company."