The United States Federal Trade Commission now requires companies selling subscriptions to their products make it as easy to cancel as it is to sign up.
In a post on its website, the organisation said this ‘click to cancel’ change to its existing rules means that companies need to ensure that information about subscriptions is easy to find and that customers must be able to understand what they are signing up to when they do so.
Companies that don’t comply with these requirements could be facing “redress and civil penalties”.
All of this is part of the FTC’s review of the 1973 Negative Option Rule, which is when companies continue to charge customers for a service until the customer cancels.
“Too often, businesses make people jump through endless hoops just to cancel a subscription,” FTC chair Lina Khan wrote.
“The FTC’s rule will end these tricks and traps, saving Americans time and money. Nobody should be stuck paying for a service they no longer want.”
