A judge lets Claude Max buyers pursue claims that Anthropic's “5x or 20x more usage” pitch misled them, keeping contract and negligent-misrepresentation claims

A federal magistrate judge in California has let two Claude Max subscribers go ahead with parts of their proposed class action against Anthropic, The Next Web and Glitchwire report, both citing Courthouse News. The suit, Kahn v. Anthropic in the Northern District of California, says Anthropic's $100 and $200 Max plans give less usage than the “5x” and “20x” multipliers in its marketing suggest.

In an order Glitchwire dates to 6 November, Magistrate Judge Alex Tse let claims of negligent misrepresentation and breach of contract proceed. He kept one plaintiff's claim under California's consumer-protection law, that of the student Solomon Smith, and dismissed Karl Kahn's claim under the same law with leave to amend. He dismissed the claims of unfair practices and false advertising.

The plaintiffs say the multipliers apply to each five-hour session but not to weekly limits; The Next Web reports they calculated that for one model the $200 plan gives six times Pro's weekly usage. Anthropic argued that “more usage” meant per session. Both outlets report the judge found the per-session explanation “is located two hyperlinks away from the primary sales pages on claude.com.”

This is a ruling on a motion to dismiss: no court has found the ads false and no class has been certified. The docket and Courthouse News refused us twice, so the outlets stand in for the order.

• Reported Judge Tse let the negligent-misrepresentation and breach-of-contract claims proceed and dismissed the false-advertising and unfair-practices claims, The Next Web and Glitchwire report, citing Courthouse News. The Next Web
• Reported The order is dated 6 November, Glitchwire reports. Glitchwire
• Claimed Anthropic argued that “more usage” meant per-session usage. Glitchwire