Class action lawsuit targets Anthropic over Claude Max limits

In short: A new class action lawsuit claims Anthropic misled customers about how much extra Claude usage its Max subscription really provides.

What happened

A group of subscribers has filed an expanded class action lawsuit against Anthropic, the company behind the AI chatbot Claude. The case focuses on Anthropic’s Max plan, which costs $100 or $200 per month and is marketed as offering “5x” or “20x” the usage limits of the $20 per month Pro plan.

The lawsuit says those “5x” and “20x” claims are confusing because the bigger limits are only promised in five-hour “sessions,” and those sessions are also subject to a weekly cap. The complaint argues that, in practice, this can add up to a much smaller increase in total usage than many people would expect from the marketing.

One subscriber compared it to “giving someone a bigger gas tank while keeping the fuel pump limited to one gallon every five hours.” The attorneys behind the lawsuit, Monica Vaca and Kati Daffan, previously worked at the US Federal Trade Commission. They argue that key limits should be easy to see, not buried behind links and fine print.

Anthropic has previously argued, in a motion to dismiss an earlier version of the case, that the clarifying details were available during the purchase process through hyperlinks, like “flipping a product over to read the back label.” Anthropic did not respond to The Verge’s request for comment.

Why it matters

Many people pay for AI tools to help with work, and $100 to $200 a month is a lot for most budgets. This case could pressure AI companies to make subscription limits clearer, especially when “usage limits” decide how often you can use a tool when you need it most.

Source: The Verge AI