Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

US Court nullifies FTC requirement for click-to-cancel

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 599 posts

Re: US Court nullifies FTC requirement for click-to-cancel

#41

Post by throw10920 »

db48x wrote: post #34
SoftTalker wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah not a great article. "failed to follow required procedures under the FTC Act during the rule-making process" but no real details on what the procedures require that the commission did not do.

A trivial search will get you the court opinion itself https://ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/25/07/243137P.pdf >, so regardless of how bad the news article is you should not be uninformed. From the abstract: …the Commission failed to follow procedural requirements under § 22 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (“FTC Act”), 15 U.S.C. § 57b-3(b)(1) A more detailed explanation: The Commission’s formal rulemaking authority…

Thank you for linking the actual legal text! (if only it weren't super hard to read due to hard wrapping - one of the reasons why HTML is generally better than PDF)

Re: US Court nullifies FTC requirement for click-to-cancel

#42

Post by renewiltord »

bpodgursky wrote: post #36
renewiltord wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Typical decel nonsense to add all these preliminary analyses. This is CEQA/NEPA type garbage. Fortunately, California law should be unaffected by this and that will probably be sufficient.

Normally I'm aligned but this is sort of a NEPA rule making sticking a monkeywrench in the gears creating new regulations, so I'm not totally opposed to the principle, as irritating as it is here.

Convincing. I guess I was thinking at step 1 deceleration but this actually depowers step 1 deceleration.

Ideally, we don't have all these structures slowing down societal adaptation. It's like we anneal over time, and that makes us brittle. We need to always be ready to bend to a new wind.

Re: US Court nullifies FTC requirement for click-to-cancel

#43

Post by DANmode »

xedrac wrote: post #12

I always felt like those click to unsubscribe links were nothing more than a "please prove to us with certainty that this is an actively used account so we can set a sticky bit on it and sell that info for $$$"

That is a valid paranoia,

but also, not the kind of subscription the article is about.

Re: US Court nullifies FTC requirement for click-to-cancel

#44

Post by silisili »

dalemhurley wrote: post #30

Here is an idea, make your service value for money and people will not want to cancel. If your product is so poor that the only way you can retain customers is to make it too hard for them to cancel then your product needs to be improved.

You just offended siriusxm, every newspaper, and every gym in the country.

Re: US Court nullifies FTC requirement for click-to-cancel

#45

Post by collingreen »

db48x wrote: post #34
SoftTalker wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah not a great article. "failed to follow required procedures under the FTC Act during the rule-making process" but no real details on what the procedures require that the commission did not do.

A trivial search will get you the court opinion itself https://ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/25/07/243137P.pdf >, so regardless of how bad the news article is you should not be uninformed. From the abstract: …the Commission failed to follow procedural requirements under § 22 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (“FTC Act”), 15 U.S.C. § 57b-3(b)(1) A more detailed explanation: The Commission’s formal rulemaking authority…

Gotta pay all those data scientists and lawyers the big bucks in order to figure out how to checks notes stop actively preventing customers from canceling your service when they want to.

I'm happy to consult on this with all those poor businesses for under $100,000,000 in order to help the court vibes feel like the cost isn't over the limit.

I feel confident I can affordably write a few whitepapers and design guidelines to help these poor folks out as they research if there should be a cancel button and if it should work.

Re: US Court nullifies FTC requirement for click-to-cancel

#46

Post by dylan604 »

silisili wrote: post #44
dalemhurley wrote: post #30

Here is an idea, make your service value for money and people will not want to cancel. If your product is so poor that the only way you can retain customers is to make it too hard for them to cancel then your product needs to be improved.

You just offended siriusxm, every newspaper, and every gym in the country.

Office365. I only have it because it’s necessary for work not because I want to use the product.

Re: US Court nullifies FTC requirement for click-to-cancel

#48

Post by Towaway69 »

MengerSponge wrote: post #37

My favorite underappreciated aspect of the iOS app store is its absolutely friction-free cancellation. It makes me much more willing to trial a subscription service because I know I won't have to spend an hour of my life on the phone with a lovely Filipino man to stop that service.

This. My iPhone is still a pleasure to use, everyday. But perhaps I can only appreciate this because I was an android user for years.

The killer app for me on iPhone? Files. I literally switched from iPhone 3 to android because it didn’t have a file manager! Thankfully I came back.

Re: US Court nullifies FTC requirement for click-to-cancel

#50

Post by tiahura »

The FTC failed to comply with 15 U.S.C. § 57b-3(b)(1), which states that the agency “shall issue a preliminary regulatory analysis” whenever it proposes a rule expected to have a significant economic impact.

After its own ALJ found the rule’s effect would exceed $100 million annually, the FTC was obligated to publish an analysis of the “projected benefits and any adverse economic effects and any other effects” and the effectiveness of alternatives, as required by § 57b-3(b)(1)(C).

Post reply on HN