FTC drops hammer on unwanted subscriptions with 'click to cancel' rule

The US Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday announced a final "click-to-cancel" rule that aims to simplify the process of ending unwanted subscriptions to products and services. The "Rule Concerning Recurring Subscriptions and Other Negative Option Programs" addresses business practices that make it more difficult for …

[Ace2]

“Lartease M. Tiffith” is hereby sentenced to an eternity of calling Comcast over and over to try to cancel their cable.

[Anonymous Coward]

Now they'll make sign-up processes a slogging multi-click dopamine-fueled video game, while cancelling will take as many clicks but instead be filled with scary words and legalese.

[Rafael #872397]

re: cancelling will take as many clicks

Just slap a half-dozen captchas there for good measure. "Click on all bicycles' images if you want to cancel. Now do it again several more times. Are you absolutely sure you want to cancel?".

[Phil O'Sophical]

Will they tackle Amazon Prime next?

[Gene Cash]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c07nlvmyl05o

The lawsuit accused the firm of tricking customers into signing up for Prime subscriptions that renewed automatically and made it difficult for people to cancel.

It also said Amazon's website designs pushed customers into agreeing to enroll in Prime and have the subscription automatically renewed as they were making purchases.

The FTC has also taken legal action against software giant Adobe for similar reasons.

It sued the company for allegedly violating consumer protection laws with "hidden" termination fees and a convoluted cancellation process.

The FTC said Adobe had failed to clearly disclose its terms to customers, including the year-long length of a subscription and charges that would be triggered for cancelling early.

[IGotOut]

Starmer take note.

Sorting out my dad's car insurance

He had Hastings Direct last year (sue me you fuckers).

Price went up £90.

Found a better and cheaper quote elsewhere. So logged in to Hastings Direct to cancel the automatic renewal.

No option to cancel.

Clicked help.

" You can cancel your renewal online or use the app"

Clicked the link. Just the manage your account with no option to cancel online. "Call this number to cancel"

Installed app. No option to cancel. Plenty of other things I can buy.

Again "Call this number to cancel"...

These are not alone.

If I can sign up online, you better let me cancel online otherwise you can forget me every doing businesses with you again, or saying anything positive about you.

So fuck you Hastings Direct.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Starmer take note.

You forgot that by calling Hastings Direct you will pick up the 'Admin Charge' for them making a change to your policy.

Basically, if they pick up the phone to do anything it is an 'Admin Charge' !!!

Not the only ones who do this but very sneaky and underhand to 'hide' the cancel option on the website to force you to ring then pay.

:)

[jokerscrowbar]

Re: Starmer take note.

Had similar experience with a company called Brightside Car Insurance for my father in law.

The Customer Service number was premium rate, on hold for about ten minutes and the script they worked through is timed to add 5 minutes to each step by reading out t&cs etc. Cancellation was simple enough but my call cost 55quid.

[Arthur the cat]

Re: Starmer take note.

Cancellation was simple enough but my call cost 55quid.

That's totally over the top. Does Trading Standards actually do anything these days?

[Ace2]

Re: Starmer take note.

I’m whining about the annoyance of having to call and argue with someone. What you’re describing is just evil.

[Arthur the cat]

Re: Starmer take note.

They're all bastards, so the UK needs a similar law. One click cancel for everything, with massive fines for failing to act upon that one click.

[Bill Broadley]

Next up gym memberships.

Hopefully they can add a similar rule to allow easy to join gym memberships be as easy to cancel.

[Fred Daggy]

Make the requirements like this and everyone is covered

"Simple" is a not defined, this will get lawyered to oblivion. And the shady companies will argue that a rats maze is simple.

"Simple : It shall never take more clicks to cancel a service than to subscribe to a service".

[druck]

Re: Make the requirements like this and everyone is covered

But you do normally have to enter a lot of personal information to subscribe to something, so a similar number of clicks & key presses to unsubscribe would still be excessive.

1. "Press to cancel subscription."

2. "Are you sure?"

3. "You are unsubscribed."

[Frank Bitterlich]

Goodbye Adobe, then...

... it was nice to know you. (NOT.) I like the "... immediately halt charges" part best. That will destroy quite a few deceptive business models.

"Subscribe here for $5/month. Cancel anytime*."

_{* Your cancellation will become effective after completing the mandatory first five years. Cancellation fee $250. To cancel, send a letter by diplomatic courier to our customer service department in Kabul.}

And about that "[T]his rule will have major harmful repercussions for the marketplace", yes, that's the point. Especially for that dystopian Mad Max arena you call "autorenewal marketing".

[Phil Koenig]

FINALLY!!

[Marty McFly]

Solution

Privacy dot com

<Not affiliated, not associated, other than being a customer.?>

Simple. Just turn off the credit card associated with the subscription. They will figure it out soon enough.

[Anonymous Coward]

My wife has just gone through this with a diet service that must have grabbed her details from the App store.

She never clicked on agree or check out and still after a week she was charged an annual fee. When she complained that she had uninstalled the app before the free period was up, they claimed that she had agreed to the EULA which included the option to charge the annual fee up front. She also never agreed to them having her credit card details. She rang the bank to get them to block any and all payments to this scam outfit.

When she called to ask them to refund the fee, they claimed they were entitled to it but would give her 3 months free as a token gesture.

Given how many companies this legislation will affect, it is about time.