You buy a service advertised and sold as "lifetime". The the company is
taken over and "lifetime" means "you have to repurchase a subscription".

How far would a disgruntled customer have a case in the UK ? And more importantly, how could they prosecute it ?


https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/14/vpn_secure_axe_lifetime_deals/

Customers are blasting VPN Secure's new parent company after it abruptly
axed thousands of "lifetime" accounts. The reason? The CEO admits in an interview with The Register that his team didn't dig deep enough before acquiring the virtual private network outfit, and simply can't afford to
honor those legacy deals.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Jethro_uk <[email protected]> wrote:

You buy a service advertised and sold as "lifetime". The the company is
taken over and "lifetime" means "you have to repurchase a subscription".

How far would a disgruntled customer have a case in the UK ? And more importantly, how could they prosecute it ?

https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/14/vpn_secure_axe_lifetime_deals/

Customers are blasting VPN Secure's new parent company after it abruptly
axed thousands of "lifetime" accounts. The reason? The CEO admits in an interview with The Register that his team didn't dig deep enough before acquiring the virtual private network outfit, and simply can't afford to honor those legacy deals.

I think it would depend on exactly what was acquired from the previous
company. Since they suggest they have acquired assets such as customer base but not liabilities, they own the name but the liabilities would remain with the previous company which continues to exist. If the previous company is
not operating a service because they've gone into bankruptcy then their customers would have a claim, but just as any other creditor.

See any other company bought out of adminstration - the liabilities for warranties, gift cards, etc often don't transfer.

You could try to pressure them to provide ongoing service out of goodwill,
but they don't have to. In this case the deal was $27.99 for a lifetime service so I think they can argue the service was sold too cheap and the ongoing costs of servicing those customers would outweigh the potential goodwill (since they'll never get further revenue out of them).

Theo

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 2025-05-14, Jethro_uk <[email protected]> wrote:

You buy a service advertised and sold as "lifetime". The the company is
taken over and "lifetime" means "you have to repurchase a subscription".

How far would a disgruntled customer have a case in the UK ? And more importantly, how could they prosecute it ?

If, as it appears here, the original company with which you made the
lifetime deal closes down, and a new company offers you a new deal,
you have no case. The new company doesn't owe you anything. The old
company would if it still existed, but it doesn't.

(You could file an objection to the liquidation of the company
I suppose, if it was still ongoing.)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 2025-05-14, Jethro_uk wrote:

You buy a service advertised and sold as "lifetime". The the company is
taken over and "lifetime" means "you have to repurchase a subscription".

How far would a disgruntled customer have a case in the UK ? And more importantly, how could they prosecute it ?

https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/14/vpn_secure_axe_lifetime_deals/

Customers are blasting VPN Secure's new parent company after it abruptly
axed thousands of "lifetime" accounts. The reason? The CEO admits in an interview with The Register that his team didn't dig deep enough before acquiring the virtual private network outfit, and simply can't afford to honor those legacy deals.

AIUI people often want their VPN service not to be subject to the laws
of their country of residence.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)