Cable companies, advertising firms, and newspapers are asking courts to block a federal “click-to-cancel” rule that would force businesses to make it easier for consumers to cancel services. Lawsuits were filed yesterday, about a week after the Federal Trade Commission approved a rule that “requires sellers to provide consumers with simple cancellation mechanisms to immediately halt all recurring charges.”
The 5th Circuit is generally regarded as the nation’s most conservative, but the 6th Circuit also has a majority of judges appointed by Republican presidents. When identical lawsuits are filed in multiple circuits, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation randomly selects a court to handle the case.
The NCTA cable lobby group, which represents companies like Comcast and Charter, have complained about the rule’s impact on their ability to talk customers out of canceling. NCTA CEO Michael Powell claimed during a January 2024 hearing that “a consumer may easily misunderstand the consequences of canceling and it may be imperative that they learn about better options” and that the rule’s disclosure and consent requirements raise “First Amendment issues.”
“Too often, businesses make people jump through endless hoops just to cancel a subscription,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said. “The FTC’s rule will end these tricks and traps, saving Americans time and money. Nobody should be stuck paying for a service they no longer want.”
if im cancelling, you trying to talk me out of it is not only a waste of my time it is a fruitless endeavor. just cut it and move on,leeches
But usually the retention departments have the most leeway to give you discounts 😀
Just call and threaten to cancel and suddenly you get 50% off for 6 months or something.
(Works very well with Audible, the further you go in the cancel flow on the website, the bigger discounts you get - you can repeat the “I quit” threat about once a year.)
doesmt matter. shoddy service isnt worth sny kind of discount.
I have great service. I just hate that I have to play the game of “pretending to cancel”.
my current service is also pretty good. the one i got when i moved here 4 years ago was trash though. not for anything they did other than advertise availability here which was sketchy about a week after i signed up. held on for a year hoping it would improve since the area was seeing more people locating in the area but nope. same crappy service. so cancelled and went back to a previous vendor as they had been making acquisitions nearby.
I have been very fortunate to have good service for essentially the entirety of my life of broadband. Only going back to when optimum first showed up, they were the only game in town, and it would have issues during times of day when there was too much traffic at the node. Since FiOS showed up (not to shill), it’s honestly been phenomenal, when you put aside the typical bullshit the providers pull. The actual service of packets in packets out, or whatever the Internet is, has been great.
Maybe if their retention rate drops they’ll just lower their costs to those rates, or better their services.
I’m so sick of the 5th Circuit. We need legislation to end judge shopping. Every damn article about some terrible decision seems to come out of the Fifth Circuit.
“We live in the United States of Texas, Louisiana & Mississippi.” —The American Prospect
To be fair, users should talk to a subscribe specialist before being able to cancel 🤪
Fuck the circuits. It’s absolute bullshit that entities can game the system and shop for “favorable” judges because of the appellate courts.
NCTA CEO Michael Powell claimed during a January 2024 hearing that “a consumer may easily misunderstand the consequences of canceling and it may be imperative that they learn about better options” …
Perhaps the consumer has “learn[ed] about better options” at another company, or that a “better option” for them is to not purchase the service at all from anyone. I’m sure the … ::flips pages:: … cable company is offering a completely holistic assessment of the consumer’s needs to help them make the best decision for themselves, right?
…and that the rule’s disclosure and consent requirements raise “First Amendment issues.”
“It is our First Amendment right to browbeat people into not being our customers anymore!”
The NCTA cable lobby group, which represents companies like Comcast and Charter, have complained about the rule’s impact on their ability to talk customers out of canceling.
Huh. Fancy that.
That’s the whole point
The fact that they are able to make these arguments and a judge takes it seriously… Is all you need to know who rules the peasants.
First Amendment now protects a corpos right to fuck you over.
But when private comapany blocks your speech on their platform for any reason is not 1a issue?
Hmmm, do these clowns have to be logically consistent or do they just win every time.
a consumer may easily misunderstand the consequences of canceling and it may be imperative that they learn about better options
See, if it’s easy to cancel, then a consumer can leave your service, try something else, and then cancel that and come back if they don’t like the alternative.
Also, imperative for who? Your bottom line?
Won’t someone please think of the shareholders!!!
I read this as: “the customer has contract terms with us, where if they cancel they must pay termination fees and other fees where applicable and if they cancel they might financially harm themselves”
To which the obvious response would be, well you would list those on the page that you click. (But also… why your business model rely on cancelation fees?)
Definitely then the issue lies with click to subscribe, and not with click to cancel.
If the customer is insufficiently informed of any penalties for cancelling, then he shouldn’t have been allowed to subscribe in the first place.
Also wouldn’t the argument apply to subscribing as well? Consumers may not understand the consequences of subscribing to said service. Therefore, “click to subscribe” should also be banned.
Imagine if we had 10s of billions a year to drag all these companies and governments into long court battles for OUR rights. Corporations should be second.
Good! Even though I HATE these BULLSHIT Services that cost me THOUSANDS a Year that I can’t Opt Out of it’s in MY Best Interest to let Corporations SCREW ME because I’m a Republican who HATES Corporations but I Hate GAY KIDS More something something TRANS ON ME!
“Won’t someone please think of the shareholders‽”
Sucks to suck, I’m so looking forward to easy cancellation from services.
I really hope they roll this out to all services, including:
- gyms
- banks
- insurance
If the customer really wants to undo it after, I’m sure the company can help with that…
As someone living in the EU, I am shocked by these stories.
In my home country in the east you, you can basically cancel most things monthly, or just stop paying, and they’ll figure it out and kick you off the service after a few weeks.
In Germany it can be a bit more annoying, but cancellation is always legally well regulated.
Fuck you, have a better product.
Yeah even if you literally cannot get their service and they have to cancel you (which happened when I moved) they still talk and talk and talk way more than is necessary for a cancellation. They even look up your location data so they can confirm what you already told them their own app said, screw these fuckers.
I swear if you’re the kind of sociopath that’s pro-Trump, them saving this rule alone should be enough to get you to vote Harris.
It’s your internet. Who cancels that without already moving to another ISP? I work from home so not having internet even for short durations is a non-starter. Forcing me to talk to someone is an absolute waste of everyone’s time. They have a zero percent chance of keeping me because I already left. I just want the bills to stop for a service I disconnected from.
I understand the whole ‘game’ for pricing/discounts but when you legitimately are leaving then this is just dumb. I think the whole game around discounts is dumb too but that’s capitalism.
Who cancels that without already moving to another ISP?
In fairness, there are people who renounce their citizenship without first ensuring that they have another citizenship elsewhere. Then they get stuck in limbo because they’re now stateless, and no-one knows where they’re supposed to go.
