The Federal Trade Commission voted on Friday to delay the application of the rule of negative options – widely known as the rule “click to reconcile”, forcing companies to make as easy to cancel a subscription as to register.
The rule, which was proposed for the first time in 2023, targeted companies that sell physical and digital subscriptions – everything, from streaming services to subscriptions to the gymnasium – thanks to simple registration flows, only so that customers later discover that they must go through a much more complex or long -to -cancel process.
Under the negative option rule, companies could not force customers to cancel subscriptions via a different method from the one they used to register – so if you register in a few clicks on a company’s website, you should also cancel on their website. Companies are also required to provide relevant information on cancellation before collecting customer payment information.
According to the FTC, the rule entered into force on January 19, but the application of certain provisions was delayed until May 14. Now, the FTC delays the application of 60 days, until July 14.
“Having carried out a new assessment of the charges that the forcing of compliance on this date would impose, the Commission determined that the initial postponement period has insufficiently explained the complexity of the compliance,” the FTC said in a press release.
The commission voted 3-0 to delay the application. The FTC traditionally has five commissioners – three from the president’s party and two of the opposing party – but President Donald Trump dismissed the two Democratic commissioners in March. These commissioners then continued Trump, arguing that their dismissal violates a precedent from the Supreme Court that the president cannot dismiss the commissioners of the FTC without reason.
Despite the delay, the FTC said that it would indeed begin the application of July 14, when “the regulated entities had to comply”.
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“Of course, if this application experience exposes problems with the rule, the commission is open to modify the rule to solve these problems,” added the FTC.
