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FTC announces "click-to-cancel" rule making it easier to cancel subscriptions

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Re: FTC announces "click-to-cancel" rule making it easier to cancel subscriptions

#281

Post by adrr »

thefourthchime wrote: post #156
ajkjk wrote: post #28

There are so many things like this that have needed fixing for such a long time. The fact that something is happening, even slowly, is so heartening. If your reaction is wondering if this is legal then you should be interested in the passing of new laws that make it unequivocally legal. Society should be able to govern itself.

Now, let's institute an actual price rule. I can't rent an Airbnb or book a plane ticket without being lied to about what the actual prices is.

Plane tickets show you all included price including taxes/fee. It was part of 2012 regulation requiring full fare disclosure passed in 2012. Telecom/Internet providers ares ones that need to be fixed because companies like Verizon will charge you bogus "taxes" like a network portability tax which isn't a tax and they pocket the money.

Re: FTC announces "click-to-cancel" rule making it easier to cancel subscriptions

#282

Post by lovethevoid »

digging wrote: post #250
Uehreka wrote: post #190

When people try and say that regulating stuff like this is impossible, I often think about how unreasonably great the regulations around “Unsubscribe” links in emails are. There really seems to be no loophole or workaround despite there being huge incentive for there to be one. Every time I click an “Unsubscribe” link in an email (it seems like they’re forced to say “Unsubscribe” and not use weasel words to hide the…

I'm super appreciative of what we have, but there's absolutely issues. CAN-SPAM specifies that the link must be clearly marked and suggests using CSS to do so, but the link is still always going to be at the bottom of the email in the smallest font used. It only matters for those of us who know to look for it ; many people just have to live with the spam because they don't know it's easy to unsubscribe. Sometimes it'…

You don't have to take them to court over it, but you can report them.

Also most clients provide an unsubscribe button at the top too.

Re: FTC announces "click-to-cancel" rule making it easier to cancel subscriptions

#283

Post by Eumenes »

Terretta wrote: post #252
Eumenes wrote: post #112

Is this a real problem? I don't have one subscription service that I can't "click to cancel".

> Is this a real problem? I don't have one subscription service that I can't "click to cancel". After 16,000 public comments, and 70 consumer complaints per day on average, up from 42 per day in 2021, the idea is that FTC made the rule for an imaginary problem?

You don't have to be snarky. I have never experienced a service I couldn't cancel online. I didnt realize it was a problem. And yes, the government attempts to solve imaginary problems everyday.

Re: FTC announces "click-to-cancel" rule making it easier to cancel subscriptions

#284

Post by metabagel »

Clubber wrote: post #163
ellisv wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (2024), the judiciary does not need to defer to federal agencies when the statute is ambiguous. In fact, the judiciary can completely ignore the expertise of the federal agency and substitute their own. The overturning of Chevron deference enables the judiciary to first find that the FTC's authority for this rule is grounded in an ambiguous statute and then decide the FTC we…

>In fact, the judiciary can completely ignore the expertise of the federal agency and substitute their own. I don't believe this is accurate, as you stated >The overturning of Chevron deference enables the judiciary to first find that the FTC's authority for this rule is grounded in an ambiguous statute and then decide the FTC went beyond their authority. The only thing the SCOTUS can do is rule against the agency fo…

[flagged]

Re: FTC announces "click-to-cancel" rule making it easier to cancel subscriptions

#285

Post by hansvm »

krunck wrote: post #74
amatecha wrote: post #67

Nice. I canceled a service recently and I had to "continue to cancel" and click on other such "confirmations" such that I think I proceeded through 7-8 pages before my subscription was actually canceled. Truly manipulative and obtuse. That was Spotify btw. I should have recorded the process, as it was nearly comedic (if it weren't so hostile).

Amazon is the worst in this regard.

They took me for a year of student-prime during a brief time period (UI bug?) where there was a button that only asked if I wanted free shipping on the current order and didn't have any of the other normal language/links/... suggesting that I was subscribing to a service in the process. I don't think it's an accident that the default payment period was 1yr either.

Re: FTC announces "click-to-cancel" rule making it easier to cancel subscriptions

#286

Post by perfectstorm »

Kon-Peki wrote: post #259
deanputney wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taxes should also be included in the advertised price, then. Just imagine!

That would be nice, but there is a LOT of background work before that is feasible (in the US). As it currently stands, for many products a vendor would need to know who you are and where you live before they could quote you a total price. That's unacceptable.

other countries have figured that out even countries with multiple levels of taxation like in the U.S. it's not an unsolvable problem.

Re: FTC announces "click-to-cancel" rule making it easier to cancel subscriptions

#287

Post by FireBeyond »

fooqux wrote: post #37
ajkjk wrote: post #28

There are so many things like this that have needed fixing for such a long time. The fact that something is happening, even slowly, is so heartening. If your reaction is wondering if this is legal then you should be interested in the passing of new laws that make it unequivocally legal. Society should be able to govern itself.

Agreed. The fact that multiple companies are springing up with the main selling point being "help you cancel subscriptions you thought you already cancelled" should be a wake up call to the legislature that this problem has gotten out of hand.

One that stung me the other day, Amazon, a $152 charge showing up on my card.

Realized that it was an annual renewal of Prime. No email notification or anything. Dig around, there is an option to get a reminder email, but it defaults to off.

This is a growing trend too, reduced or no notification of renewal, even on annual subscriptions, so you get hit with a three digit charge out of nowhere (not that it's not our responsibility to track these things, but many of us do so less than we'd like).

Re: FTC announces "click-to-cancel" rule making it easier to cancel subscriptions

#288

Post by mardifoufs »

NotPractical wrote: post #153
coldpie wrote: post #4

Passed 3-2 along party lines. Remember this when you're going to vote. Elections matter.

Not surprised that you're being downvoted despite telling the truth, because "politics is off-topic while technology is on-topic" (even though politics is often deeply intertwined with technology).

Sure, everything is political. But that's meaningless, and it just gets tiring to see the same debates over and over because someone said the thing "remember this when you vote". Like yeah, that's usually how voting works; you vote based on policies like this.

It would be similar to going into an israel-palestine war thread and saying that "remember, if you vote Biden you're voting for a president that is enabling a genocide" or saying that "those bombs were given by Biden's administration " whenever a hospital gets hit in that war. Is it true? Sure. Is it stirring the pot? Absolutely. Do people who vote for Biden already know that and don't really care? Almost certainly.

The exact same applies to comments like this. Like yes, republicans vote for Republican candidates knowing this. It's not like they weren't aware that the party they support leans heavily towards favoring business interests.

Re: FTC announces "click-to-cancel" rule making it easier to cancel subscriptions

#290

Post by idontwantthis »

ajkjk wrote: post #28

There are so many things like this that have needed fixing for such a long time. The fact that something is happening, even slowly, is so heartening. If your reaction is wondering if this is legal then you should be interested in the passing of new laws that make it unequivocally legal. Society should be able to govern itself.

If you like this kind of thing please vote for Democrats this November.

Edit: Instead of downvoting how about you point me to the Republican platform that endorses consumer protections ?

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