US Court nullifies FTC requirement for click-to-cancel • Hacker News Board

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

#61

Post by glaucon » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 4:31 AM UTC

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…

Thanks for the analysis.

Gotta laugh at the threshold being USD100M costs to the affected businesses without the law taking into account how much the annual costs to consumers are, assuming the continuation of the practices.

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

#62

Post by db48x » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 4:35 AM UTC

For those of you wondering what the actual decision says: https://ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/25/07/243137P.pdf>

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

#63

Post by nico » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 4:37 AM UTC

missedthecue wrote: post #59

postalrat wrote: post #47

I should be able to go into my bank or card service online. View a list of all my subscriptions. Click on a subscription (or select all). And cancel. If there is a card that offers this let me know because I'll be switching immediately.

I had a recurring charge on my Capital One credit card and canceled it from my Capital One app. The next month, the charge went through again and they proactively gave me an account credit equal to the charged amount, with an emailed apology. I'm not sure why they couldn't cancel it, or if it will go through again this month, but it surprised me!

I had a subscription with an account that I couldn’t access anymore, and there wasn’t any other way to cancel

So I contested the charge through the bank. They would refund me, but then the company would charge me again for the subscription

This went on for several months. At some point the card expired, the bank automatically sent me a new card, and somehow the company was still able to charge the subscription to my new card, even though I couldn’t even access my account

It was a couple of years ago, and I don’t remember how I finally stopped it. But it was kinda shocking to me to see the charges “jump” through different cards. Especially given that usually any service that I don’t want cancelled, gets immediately cancelled if my card on file expires

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

#64

Post by wobfan » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 4:42 AM UTC

postalrat wrote: post #47

I should be able to go into my bank or card service online. View a list of all my subscriptions. Click on a subscription (or select all). And cancel. If there is a card that offers this let me know because I'll be switching immediately.

Not gonna lie, I actually have canceled many service because of this single reason. If I get the feeling they want to hide these options specifically to keep me in a subscription, I immediately feel the urge to cancel even more, and also it gives me the feeling that the service itself is obviously, objectively, not good enough that they can just be honest and offer a easy cancel option - because they fear that too many people would.

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

#65

Post by ethagnawl » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 4:43 AM UTC

delecti wrote: post #57

silisili wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

WaPo and NYT were both very easy to cancel.

WaPo was easy when I canceled last November. The lost time I canceled a NYT subscription, it still required a phone call.

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

#66

Post by babyshake » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 4:49 AM UTC

postalrat wrote: post #47

I should be able to go into my bank or card service online. View a list of all my subscriptions. Click on a subscription (or select all). And cancel. If there is a card that offers this let me know because I'll be switching immediately.

You can use privacy.com as another commenter has written. But one catch is I believe you can be on the hook for subscriptions where your card no longer works but you haven't cancelled your subscription. So they can send you invoices and even send it to collections. Although I strongly feel that at least for transactions of a sufficiently small size (normal retail subscriptions) cancelling your card should be legally considered sufficient enough for voiding your future subscription. I'm open to hearing counter arguments but I think the consumer shouldn't have to jump through even the smallest of hoops setup by vendors in order to indicate that they are no longer interested in future transactions.

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

#67

Post by advisedwang » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 4:52 AM UTC

postalrat wrote: post #47

I should be able to go into my bank or card service online. View a list of all my subscriptions. Click on a subscription (or select all). And cancel. If there is a card that offers this let me know because I'll be switching immediately.

What about subscriptions where you agreed to a long-term subscription (e.g. for a discounted rate)?

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

#68

Post by vincenzothgreat » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 4:57 AM UTC

babyshake wrote: post #66

postalrat wrote: post #47

I should be able to go into my bank or card service online. View a list of all my subscriptions. Click on a subscription (or select all). And cancel. If there is a card that offers this let me know because I'll be switching immediately.

You can use privacy.com as another commenter has written. But one catch is I believe you can be on the hook for subscriptions where your card no longer works but you haven't cancelled your subscription. So they can send you invoices and even send it to collections. Although I strongly feel that at least for transactions of a sufficiently small size (normal retail subscriptions) cancelling your card should be legally…

use an alias with an alias email, the Privacy.com card will accept any name and address. Never had any sort of issue in all the years using them

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

#69

Post by gblargg » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 4:57 AM UTC

saulpw wrote: post #58

postalrat wrote: post #47

I should be able to go into my bank or card service online. View a list of all my subscriptions. Click on a subscription (or select all). And cancel. If there is a card that offers this let me know because I'll be switching immediately.

I use privacy.com for this. (Not affiliated, just a satisfied customer.)

I wasn't able to jump through their hoops to sign up. They wanted my bank login, which I will absolutely not give to anyone. I tried a debit card but that also failed.

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

#70

Post by bjt12345 » Wed, Jul 09, 2025, 5:04 AM UTC

tbrownaw wrote: post #56

dboreham wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because systematic corruption presumably?

More that they mistakenly thought that doing the right thing meant they didn't have to do the thing right.

But, if you want to make it look like you are doing the right thing but don't want to be remembered as having done that right thing, maybe this was the right thing to do given that now it won't be done.