Costco is facing a new class action lawsuit that accuses the warehouse retailer of violating California law by sending membership renewal notices too late and without enough detail. The complaint says Russel George was surprised when his Gold Star annual membership automatically renewed in January 2026 and his payment card was charged $65.
George says he had been reconsidering whether to keep the membership because he shopped at Costco infrequently. The lawsuit says he would have canceled if he had received proper notice in time.
The filing, George II v. Costco Wholesale Corp., Case No. 3:26-cv-02369, was brought in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and is represented by Matthew Smith of Migliaccio & Rathod LLP. George alleges violations of California’s Automatic Renewal Law, False Advertising Law, Consumers Legal Remedies Act and Unfair Competition Law, and is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief as well as damages for himself and other class members.
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At the center of the dispute is the timing and content of Costco’s renewal emails. The lawsuit says the company sends notice 60 days before automatically charging customers’ credit cards, while California’s Automatic Renewal Law sets a 45-day window for renewal notices. It also says the notices fail to include the length and terms of the renewal, the amount to be charged and the methods customers can use to cancel automatic renewal.
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The complaint argues that, because of that gap, George did not get information he was entitled to receive before the charge went through. It says a timely notice would have given him a chance to stop the renewal and avoid the $65 charge. The case comes as Costco also faced a separate class action lawsuit last month over allegations that it sold chickens contaminated with Salmonella.
