Cleveland Reporter

Last week, a federal judge stated that a lawsuit against Cedar Fair over not refunding season passes while lockdown restrictions took place could take place.

U.S. District Judge James Carr ruled that lawsuit could proceed despite the theme park’s request to dismiss the lawsuit, according to WXIX.

"At this point, I believe that they (the plaintiffs) have adequately stated a claim for relief," Carr said. 

"Cedar Fair owns Ohio’s Kings Island and Cedar Point as well as 11 other amusement parks, nine waterparks and fourteen hotels in North America," WXIX said. "Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cedar Fair kept its parks closed past their usual opening dates in 2020. Many parks remained closed for substantial portions of the season, and those that reopened, such as Kings Island in July 2020, did so with significant restrictions."

The plaintiffs are represented by the Santa Monica, California-based Dovel and Luner who stated that Cedar Fair denied an offer to prorate a refund on the season passes while they closed. The lawsuit said that this does not comply with Ohio’s consumer protection laws because the theme park had promoted “unlimited access for all the 2020 season,” along with being open for 130-140 days.

The news station reported that Cedar Fair did not state that they would not offer refunds should they not be able to open as was the case with the pandemic. Carr said that state law does not demand an organization to “company to knowingly deceive a consumer for a violation to exis

Carr said, according to WXIX, that based on the disclaimer:  “I cannot find as a matter of law that a reasonable consumer would have understood that those disclaimers applied to these circumstances.” 

"Cedar Fair then argued it gave consumers an equal trade by making 2020 season passes valid through 2021," WXIX said. "Carr explained that and other questions of fact couldn’t be resolved in a dismissal motion. 

"Cedar Fair also contended the season passes should be legally classified as licenses (allowing passholders to come to the park for whatever a season may comprise) rather than binding contracts (granting passholders entrance on a set number of days, as do season tickets for a sports team.)”

While Carr didn’t state whether or not season passes were binding, he did deny the theme park’s request to dismiss the lawsuit that is now set to go before the Ohio Supreme Court. Carr believed that the typical customer could not differentiate between binding contracts and licenses and that the Ohio law “liberally construed in favor of the consumer,” WXIX said.