page_title: Sinemia
section_title: Controversy
hierarchical_section_title: Sinemia / Controversy
caption_attribution_description: English: The error message most commonly experienced by Sinemia app users when trying to purchase a ticket through their service.
context_page_description: Sinemia was a subscription-based service that provides discounted movie-ticket plans. Sinemia advertises a variety of subscription types, including those allowing users to watch movies in every format available at any movie theater with no limitation on the dates or movie showtimes, however the service has been plagued with problems. Sinemia is the only international movie-ticket subscription service that operated in the UK, Canada, Turkey and Australia alongside the US. Sinemia ceased operations in the US on April 26, 2019.
  The company stated it was the subject of a pending FTC investigation in its US bankruptcy filing, and a class-action lawsuit was filed against Sinemia over fees. Sinemia also came under fire for requiring its users to provide photo identification, social security numbers and other personal information, termination of subscriber accounts without apparent cause as well as app errors which many believed were intentionally designed to slow use of the app, and that the company was able to selectively "fix" on a subscriber-by-subscriber basis depending upon how widely and frequently such customer complained on Twitter and other platforms.
context_section_description: FTC Investigation
  On April 27, 2019, Sinemia confirmed that it was under "pending" Federal Trade Commission investigation. While the FTC would neither confirm nor deny the investigation, the FTC's role in "stopping unfair, deceptive or fraudulent practices in the marketplace" matches many of the complaints logged by users.
  Class-Action Lawsuit
  In November 2018, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Sinemia alleging a "bait and switch" scheme over a new $1.80 per ticket processing fee charged to customers who had prepaid annual memberships. "[Sinemia] lures consumers in by convincing them to purchase a purportedly cheaper movie subscription, and then adds undisclosed fees that make such purchases no bargain at all," the lawsuit claims. "Sinemia fleeces consumers with an undisclosed, unexpected, and not-bargained-for processing fee each time a plan subscriber goes to the movies using Sinemia's service." The lawsuit was amended in February 2019 to include more plaintiffs across 10 states.
  Photo ID Demands, "Exit Scam" Behavior and Privacy Concerns
  Beginning late February 2019, customers found themselves unable to use the Sinemia app along with a message that Sinemia needed a copy of a driver's license, passport or other photo ID to "prevent fraud." In some cases, Sinemia required two forms of ID leading to speculation about the company's motivation. In many cases, once the company obtained the photo ID, passport, etc. the accounts were soon terminated. Those who refused to provide photo identification were barred from using the service with no refund, thus leaving many compelled to provide their personal identification documents as unusual and invasive as the demand is. Some have noted that Sinemia at the time was acting as an "exit scam" in which they collect private information for sale on the dark web, and quickly cease operations and disappear. Within 60 days Sinemia announced that they were ceasing US operations, leaving customers exceptionally concerned about the fate of their photo ID, credit card information, and other personal information included date of birth, and in some cases social security numbers.
  Account Terminations
  In early March 2019, customers began reporting that their accounts were being terminated with no reason being given for the terminations. Despite outcry from many of those terminated that there was no misuse or fraud on their part, Sinemia claimed that it "has uncovered more than a thousand variations of fraud and has improved its fraud detection systems accordingly" and that it "detected fraudulent activities by a number of users whose memberships have been subsequently terminated due to violation of the Terms of Service."  Many noted that they were terminated after the company updated their app to request "tips" when customers attempted to purchase movie tickets and once they refused to tip, their service was terminated. Sinemia subsequently offered partial refunds to customers "based on the difference between what you’ve paid to Sinemia and your spending which also includes the cost of the tickets you have received through your Sinemia membership," which for most users who were terminated ended up being zero, leading some users to speculate that the company terminated users that it was beginning to lose money on. The company claims that it has only removed 3% of user accounts since early March due to fraudulent activity, though it has provided no hard data to back up this claim. Publications such as Business Insider noted that they alone had received hundreds of complaints from customers on Sinemia problems, and many other sites reporting the "fraud" claims have dozens or hundreds of comments from irate terminated users, suggesting that the "3%" claim is highly understated. A survey conducted in the private Sinemia Chatter Facebook group (with 284 members total) showed that fully 80% effectively had their accounts or service effectively terminated, whether through outright account termination, account termination followed by reinstatement quickly followed by error messages, or unusual err
caption: Error message commonly experienced by Sinemia app users.
exif: {}