Magistrate Judge Alex Tse of the federal court in northern California has permitted the proposed class action Kahn v. Anthropic to move forward on its core allegations, while throwing out several additional claims in a Friday ruling reported by Courthouse News.
At the heart of the dispute lies Anthropic's promotional messaging for its Claude subscription offerings. The company marketed its $100 and $200 Max plans as delivering five or 20 times greater usage capacity relative to the Pro tier. Yet the lawsuit, initiated in June by plaintiffs Karl Kahn and Solomon Smith, contends that the actual weekly allowances fall substantially short of these multiples.
According to calculations presented by Kahn and Smith, a single Claude model under the $200 plan provides approximately six times the weekly usage of Pro, while the $100 plan delivers roughly 3.5 times. The discrepancy stems from how Anthropic structures its rate limits: Max subscribers receive five or 20 times more capacity during individual five-hour sessions, but their cumulative weekly ceilings do not scale proportionally.
Anthropic defended its marketing by arguing that customers should interpret the multiplier claims as referring to per-session usage and pointed to explanatory documentation on its support pages. Judge Tse rejected this defense, however, noting the placement of such clarifications relative to where purchasing decisions occur.
Anthropic's per session disclosure is located two hyperlinks away from the primary sales pages on claude.com
Magistrate Judge Alex Tse
The judge reasoned that because customers pay on a monthly basis, they could reasonably interpret the performance promises as applying to their entire billing cycle rather than individual sessions. This interpretation allowed the negligent misrepresentation and breach of contract claims to survive the motion to dismiss.
Tse eliminated claims grounded in two California statutes addressing unfair competition and deceptive advertising. He also dismissed Kahn's claim under a state consumer protection statute, though he permitted Kahn to file an amended complaint with additional specifics. Smith's equivalent claim under that same law was permitted to proceed.
The judge also rejected allegations that Anthropic engaged in unfair conduct by reducing usage allowances mid-billing period. Neither Anthropic nor the plaintiffs offered immediate comment to Courthouse News. In a separate development, Anthropic rebranded its Max subscription tiers the previous week.
Source: The Next Web
