Brilliant

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Brilliant

Basic information
Founded	2012
Type	Private
Industry	Online education
Official website	https://brilliant.org

Brilliant (also known as Brilliant.org) is a website and app operated by Brilliant Worldwide, Inc. that provides online courses. Despite the “.org”, Brilliant is a for-profit corporation supported by venture capitalists. Brilliant is most known for its advertisements on YouTube, where the service is promoted by presenters who are renowned for their evidence-based points of view, for scrutinizing and refuting pseudoscience and scams.

Courses on Brilliant are made by an anonymous “content team”.

Brilliant functions similarly to a mathematics textbook, but with buttons to click through to navigate between sections and quizzes between paragraphs. Some of the illustrations have an interactive component, often in the form of a slider that can be dragged around. These interactive elements make Brilliant appear more engaging and dynamic than a traditional textbook.

The slider in the picture seems to provide no real challenge in solving it, merely needing to be displaced to solve the puzzle.

Brilliant never promotes itself as being suitable to a particular audience studying for a particular goal. Courses on Brilliant introduce basic concepts of each subject, however, they lack independent validation or formal accreditation for their effectiveness.

Terms of use

The terms of service for Brilliant state:

Brilliant reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify or replace any of the terms or conditions of this Agreement at any time. It is User's responsibility to check this Agreement periodically for changes. User's continued use of the Service following the posting of any changes to this Agreement constitutes acceptance of those changes.

Even if the consumer has paid for a full year of service, Brilliant may change its terms and conditions after the sale. Continued use of the service automatically constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

Access

Brilliant may revoke a paid customer's access to the service at any time without refund:

Brilliant may change, suspend or discontinue the Services, including the availability of any feature, database or content, at any time. Brilliant may also impose limits on certain features and services or restrict User's access to parts or all of the Services without notice or liability.

If the law grants the consumer rights that are illegally denied by the terms of use, the consumer is not allowed to access the service:

User also certifies that User is legally permitted to use the Service and takes full responsibility for the selection and use of the Service. This Agreement is void where prohibited by law, and the right to access the Service is revoked in such jurisdictions.

Billing and payment

The price advertised by Brilliant may not be the actual price a customer is required to pay. The final price includes undisclosed additional taxes:

All fees are exclusive of applicable taxes (e.g. sales, use, or value-added tax), unless otherwise stated, and User is solely responsible for the payment of any such taxes that may be imposed on your use of the Service.

If a customer cancels their payment card to prevent further charges, Brilliant may directly contact the card issuer to request confidential records for any new card issued to the consumer:

User authorizes Brilliant to obtain updated or replacement expiration dates and card numbers for User's credit or debit card as provided by User's credit or debit card issuer.

To reiterate, Brilliant may cancel a consumer's access to the service at any time without offering a refund:

Except as expressly provided in the “Refunds” section below, all fees are final and nonrefundable (including in the event any features or functions of any service that User has subscribed to are changed, modified, diminished or removed), except as otherwise required by applicable law.

Automatic renewal

Brilliant automatically renews user subscriptions without explicit permission from the user. As a result, customers who have lost interest in the service and may have forgotten about it may be unexpectedly billed at the start of a new subscription cycle. The annual subscription cycle also implicitly assumes that users want to use the service continuously for a full year, which ignores use-cases where customers may want only to study at specific times of the year.

When Brilliant lowers its prices, existing customers are still billed at the original, higher prices on renewal, despite being protected from price increases by the same policy:

User's subscription to the Service will continue indefinitely until cancelled by User (via the cancellation mechanisms provided on the Site). After User's initial subscription period, and again after any subsequent subscription period, User's subscription will automatically continue for an additional equivalent period, at the price User agreed to when subscribing.

By using the service, the user is automatically opted in for automatic renewal, and there is no option to opt out:

User agrees that User's account will be subject to this automatic renewal feature.

The subscription itself authorizes Brilliant to periodically charge customers' credit cards for automatic renewal, again including undisclosed additional taxes:

By subscribing, User authorizes Brilliant to charge User's credit card, debit card or other payment method at such time and again at the beginning of any subsequent subscription period, including any sales or similar taxes imposed on User's subscription payments.

Refunds

Brilliant may grant refunds to customers at its sole discretion:

All payments To Brilliant for the Services are nonrefundable. There are no refunds or credits for partially used subscription periods. However, Brilliant may grant refunds or credits on a case-by-case basis at Brilliant’s sole discretion. Brilliant’s grant of a refund or credit in one instance does not obligate Brilliant to provide a refund or credit in the future, under any circumstances.

Promotions

The seven-day free trial is a free-to-pay scheme: a one-year paid subscription with a seven-day cancellation period:

Brilliant may offer promotions, such as free trials, discounts, or other special offers, to users from time to time (collectively, “Promotions”). Promotions may be subject to specific terms, including a defined period during which the Promotion must be redeemed and utilized (each, a “Promotion Period”). Unless otherwise stated, any use of a Promotion will automatically convert into a paid subscription for the Services upon the expiration of the Promotional Period. Users are responsible for canceling their subscription before the end of the Promotional Period to avoid incurring any charges (or, in the case of a discount Promotion, to avoid additional charges). Failure to cancel within the Promotional Period will result in the applicable subscription fee being charged to the payment method provided at the time of sign-up or as updated by User.

According to a CNET survey concerning the utilization of subscription services, “A total of 48% of respondents said they had signed up for a free trial of a paid subscription and then forgot to cancel it.”

Site content

Brilliant may only appear in YouTube videos with the express permission of Brilliant, which suggests that only those paid by the company to say pre-approved messages are allowed to display its product at all:

Reproducing, copying or distributing any content, materials or design elements on the Site for any purpose is strictly prohibited without the express prior written permission of Brilliant.

Termination

Brilliant may revoke access to the service that a customer has paid for at any time, without explanation:

Brilliant may terminate User's access to all or any part of the Service at any time, with or without cause, effective upon notice thereof to User (provided that, if Brilliant determines there may be an immediate threat to Brilliant, it may terminate such access without notice).

Forced arbitration

Local consumer rights may not apply to this agreement. According to the terms of service, with respect to their agreement with Brilliant, customers are governed by the laws of Pennsylvania, but not to its courts, instead agreeing to submit to the jurisdiction of the courts in California.

This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the state of Pennsylvania, as if made within Pennsylvania between two residents thereof, and the parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and Federal courts located in San Francisco, California.

Customers forfeit their right to pursue legal action, instead being subject to forced arbitration by a private company:

Notwithstanding the foregoing sentence, (but without limiting either party's right to seek injunctive or other equitable relief immediately, at any time, in any court of competent jurisdiction), any disputes arising with respect to this Agreement shall be settled by arbitration in accordance with the rules and procedures of the Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Service, Inc. ("JAMS"). The arbitrator shall be selected by joint agreement of the parties. In the event the parties cannot agree on an arbitrator within thirty (30) days of the initiating party providing the other party with written notice that it plans to seek arbitration, the parties shall each select an arbitrator affiliated with JAMS, which arbitrators shall jointly select a third such arbitrator to resolve the dispute. The written decision of the arbitrator shall be final and binding on the parties and enforceable in any court. The arbitration proceeding shall take place in San Francisco, California, using the English language.