The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has targeted a popular retention program in the news industry, ruling ‘call to cancel’ subscriptions are illegal.
Many companies, including a large portion of the news industry, make it easy for customers to sign up for subscriptions, but then require them to call in to cancel. According to NiemanLab, only 41% of US news organizations make it as easy for customers to cancel subscriptions as they do for customers to sign up. The practice is known as “click to subscribe, call to cancel.”
The FTC has ruled that such practices are illegal, calling them “dirty tricks.”
“Today’s enforcement policy statement makes clear that tricking consumers into signing up for subscription programs or trapping them when they try to cancel is against the law,” said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Firms that deploy dark patterns and other dirty tricks should take notice.”
The new guidance says companies must provide a method of cancellation that is as easy as the method for subscribing.
