Unsubscribing from a service at the end of a free trial shouldn't be difficult, but in a number of cases it can seem almost impossible or result in a surprise charge. Now a group of US senators is attempting to fix that with the Unsubscribe Act.
Many subscription services attempt to lure in new customers with the offer of a free trail or reduced price for a few months. It works, but when those offers end it often proves much more difficult than it should be to cancel. As US senator Brian Schatz explains on his website, a bipartisan bill has been introduced with the support of John Thune (R-S.D.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), and John Kennedy (R-La.) to try and solve this problem for consumers.
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The Unsubscribe Act has five key requirements Schatz lists:
- Require sellers to provide customers with a clear understanding of all the terms of the contract and obtain the customer’s express and informed consent
- Require sellers to provide a simple means of canceling the subscription, which the customer can complete in the same way in which the original contract was entered into
- Require sellers to provide a clear notice to consumers when their free or reduced-cost trial is complete and before charging for the full-cost subscription
- Disallow automatic transfer to a contract longer than one month
- Require sellers to periodically notify the customer of the terms of the contract and the cancellation mechanism
All sound more than reasonable and easy to implement, but the senators believe some companies rely on deceptive practices in order to retain their customer base and will therefore not appreciate this new legislation becoming law. "Free trials should benefit consumers, not trick them into endless payments for a product they don’t want. This bill would give customers who enter subscription trials a clear, easy way to cancel those subscriptions," said Senator Kennedy.
There's companion legislation being introduced to the House of Representatives by Mark Takano (D-Calif.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Ed Case (D-Hawai‘i), and Michael San Nicolas (D-Guam). And the Schatz-Thune legislation has garnered the support of Consumer Action, Truth in Advertising, and the National Consumer League. If the support continues and the bill is successful, we could see subscription services become much easier to manage and cancel.