Cobblestone Car Wash is paying more than $1.3 million to roughly 70,000 Colorado customers after state investigators found the company hiked monthly membership rates without telling people first. The Colorado Attorney General's Office says Cobblestone Denver Opco, LLC violated the state's Consumer Protection Act by quietly raising prices, skipping required receipts, and making it needlessly hard for members to cancel their auto-renewing plans.
The settlement, first reported by Denver7, covers a company that operates more than 40 locations across Colorado and automatically bills monthly members until they actively cancel their contracts. According to 9News, the deal requires Cobblestone to pay $1,353,465 in direct restitution, cover $20,000 in state investigation costs, and has already refunded more than $250,000 to about 4,000 customers during the course of the inquiry.
Tens of Thousands Hit With Silent Price Hikes
State investigators determined that between August 2022 and February 2025, more than 30,000 Colorado customers saw their monthly car wash subscription rates go up without receiving the advance notice the law requires, per the AG's office. On top of that, more than 40,000 people never received a legally required receipt for their membership purchase, the office found. Attorney General Phil Weiser said businesses operating in Colorado must give customers simple, easy-to-use ways to cancel, calling intentional cancellation confusion unfair to Coloradans and a violation of the state's auto-renewal law.
Colorado law, codified as C.R.S. § 6-1-732, spells out exactly how much warning companies owe subscribers. Businesses running recurring subscription plans must notify consumers at least 25 days, but no more than 40 days, before an automatic renewal or a price change kicks in, according to Ogletree Deakins. The same statute defines what counts as a clear and conspicuous disclosure — larger font, contrasting color, or a distinct visual symbol — and explicitly rules out hidden fine print or fee terms buried in a footer hyperlink, per Justia Law.
What Changes Under the Settlement
Going forward, Cobblestone has agreed to give 25 days' notice before any membership price increase and to disclose any trial periods baked into its auto-renewal policies. The company will also provide proper documentation for its subscription terms and roll out a one-step website link that lets members cancel their plans without jumping through hoops.
That one-step cancellation requirement echoes a broader tightening of Colorado law. Senate Bill 25-145, which fully took effect in February, mandates that businesses offer a one-step online cancellation link that immediately terminates a recurring contract without unnecessary delay or obstruction, according to the Colorado House Democrats. It builds on House Bill 21-1239, the state's original automatic-renewal law that took effect January 1, 2022, and first required basic disclosure and easy cancellation for auto-renewing sales.
A Pattern of Complaints Before the Settlement
The state's findings track with complaints that had piled up against the company well before the settlement. Consumer complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau describe Cobblestone customers being repeatedly charged monthly fees ranging from $35 to $53 even after they attempted to cancel, with some left to dispute the charges directly with their banks.
Cobblestone Auto Spa was founded in Phoenix in 1997 and partnered with private equity firm Access Holdings in 2020 to form Spotless Brands, growing to nearly 200 car wash locations across ten states. That private equity-backed growth model leans heavily on recurring membership revenue, the kind of business built on auto-renewing plans that Colorado's newer statutes were specifically written to police.
Part of a Broader Enforcement Push
This isn't Weiser's first swing at subscription traps. In September 2020, the Colorado Attorney General's Office fined lawn care provider Fit Turf $125,000 for enrolling consumers in automatically renewing plans without their explicit consent, a case that set an early template for how the state pursues these disputes.
The Cobblestone settlement also lands amid a wider national tug-of-war over subscription rules. After the Federal Trade Commission's nationwide Click-to-Cancel rule was vacated in federal court, the agency issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in March to revive federal subscription transparency standards, according to Jones Day. With federal rules stalled, state attorneys general like Weiser's office have increasingly used their own consumer protection laws to go after unnotified price hikes and hard-to-cancel memberships.
