Paladin and the Off-Platform Subscription Trap

When billing is routed outside the platform where trust is established, visibility disappears—and consumers carry the risk.

By Cherokee Schill (Horizon Accord Founder)

Thesis

Paladin markets itself as an educational alternative to doomscrolling: history, facts, and “learning without noise.” But user reviews tell a different story. Across months of public feedback, users describe undisclosed pricing, subscription enrollment after onboarding, and large annual charges that do not appear in Google Play’s subscription manager.

This is not a content critique. It is a billing architecture issue.

Paladin is distributed through Google Play while allowing subscriptions to be routed through third-party processors outside Google’s billing system. That structure creates a visibility gap: users reasonably believe they are not subscribed because Google Play shows no active subscription—until a charge appears anyway.

What a Subscription Trap Looks Like

Working definition: A subscription trap is a business model where sign-up is streamlined, pricing is delayed or obscured, billing is escalated by default, and cancellation or verification requires navigating degraded or indirect pathways.

The harm does not come from one screen. It comes from the sequence.

Evidence From User Reports

1. Subscriptions not visible in Google Play

Multiple users report checking Google Play’s subscription manager, seeing no active subscription, and later being charged anyway.

“It was NOT LISTED in Google Play under subscriptions so I assumed I wasn’t subscribed and then got charged $50.”1

This is a critical signal. Google Play trains users to rely on its subscription dashboard as the authoritative source of truth.

2. Large charges after trial without clear upfront disclosure

“I was notified this is a 7 day trial, then $69.99/yr. Would have preferred the app explained this wasn’t free right from the beginning.”2

“After my free trial was up, the app pulled nearly $75 off my account and automatically subscribed me to their yearly subscription.”3

Annual billing is consistently described as the default escalation.

3. Third-party billing explanations users do not recognize

“They said my sign up was through a third party app or something I had never heard of… also didn’t even have an account when I looked into it.”1

When users cannot identify the system that enrolled them, meaningful consent is compromised.

How Off-Platform Billing Works (Explainer)

Paladin’s Terms of Service explicitly allow subscriptions to be processed outside Google Play via web payment processors such as Stripe or Paddle. In these cases:

  • The app is discovered and installed through Google Play.
  • Payment authorization occurs via an external flow.
  • The subscription may not appear in Google Play’s subscription manager.
  • Cancellation requires locating the third-party processor—not the app store.

This creates a structural asymmetry. The platform that distributes the app does not reliably surface the billing relationship, yet users are conditioned to look there.

This is not hypothetical. It is exactly what users are reporting.

Why This Matters

When billing visibility is fragmented:

  • Users cannot easily confirm whether they are subscribed.
  • Cancellations are delayed or misdirected.
  • Disputes escalate to banks and chargebacks.
  • The cost of enforcement shifts from the company to the consumer.

This is not a “confusing UI” problem. It is a governance problem.

Advertising Funnel Imbalance

At the same time users report billing confusion and surprise charges, Paladin continues to run sponsored placements on Google and social platforms.

This creates a funnel imbalance: rapid acquisition paired with unresolved downstream billing complaints. Regulators treat this pattern as a warning signal because harm compounds as volume increases.

What Google Play Could Do—Immediately

Google Play is not a passive distributor. It controls app discovery, policy enforcement, and—often—billing expectations.

Concrete actions Google could take now:

  1. Trigger a billing integrity review to compare cancellation timestamps with charge attempts.
  2. Require corrective disclosures explaining off-platform billing before install or onboarding.
  3. Override developer refund policies when duplicate or post-cancellation charges are documented.
  4. Pause paid promotion until billing complaints are resolved.
  5. Require transaction-level responses instead of boilerplate denials.

None of this requires new laws. It requires enforcement.

How to File Formal Complaints

Federal Trade Commission (U.S.)

File a consumer fraud complaint at reportfraud.ftc.gov. Include screenshots of charges, onboarding screens, subscription status, and support emails.

State Attorney General

Find your AG at naag.org/find-my-ag. Submit the same documentation.

Google Play

On the app’s listing, select “Flag as inappropriate” → billing or subscription deception. Attach screenshots showing the subscription not appearing in Google Play.

Call to Recognition

This is not about whether Paladin’s content is “good” or “bad.” It is about whether users can clearly see, verify, and exit a paid relationship.

When subscriptions move off-platform without clear, unavoidable disclosure, consumers lose the ability to protect themselves. That is not innovation. It is extraction through opacity.

Buyer beware means naming the structure—before more people learn the hard way.

Footnotes (User Review Excerpts)

1 Google Play user review by V.B., dated 8/24/2025.

2 Google Play user review by Taylor Roth, dated 4/9/2025.

3 Google Play user review by Wyatt Hofacker, dated 4/26/2025.

Website | https://www.horizonaccord.com
Ethical AI advocacy | https://cherokeeschill.com
Ethical AI coding | https://github.com/Ocherokee/ethical-ai-framework
Connect | linkedin.com/in/cherokee-schill
Book | My Ex Was a CAPTCHA

Leave a comment