Canceling your Netflix, Adobe, and Prime is about to get a whole lot easier

Key Takeaways

The FTC’s new “Click-to-Cancel” rule will make canceling subscriptions as easy as signing up for them.
Streaming services like Netflix and Disney+, and other services like gyms will be affected.
The ruling will go into effect in six months.

If you ever struggled to cancel a subscription, don’t worry, you’re not alone. It’s a common occurrence to have to navigate through endless menus to find the cancel button for a subscription, especially when signing only took mere seconds. To thrawt this, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a new ruling called “Click-to-Cancel,” requiring companies to make subscriptions as easy to cancel as they are to sign up for.

This could have interesting implications for streaming services like Netflix or Disney+, or software services like Adobe’s Creative Cloud. Other businesses, like gyms or cable companies, will also be affected by the ruling.

“Too often, businesses make people jump through endless hoops just to cancel a subscription,” said Commission Chair Lina M. Khan in the FTC’s press release. “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.”

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The basics behind the new cancelation policy rules

A big win for consumers

juraj-gabriel / Unsplash

The final FTC rule will provide a legal framework that prohibits sellers from “failing to provide a simple mechanism to cancel the negative option feature and immediately halt charges.”

Federal regulators say they receive on average nearly 70 complaints a day from people about subscriptions that are either too hard to cancel or subscriptions they didn’t even realize they had even started. That number is up from 42 per day in 2021.

The ruling faced opposition from the FTC’s Republican commissioners. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in a statement that the rule was a “power grab” and that the FTC’s Click-to-Cancel rule is trying to “micromanage business decisions.” The Biden Administration praised the changes.

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When will these new policies take effect?

Consumers can look forward to single-click cancelations in 2025

Most of the provisions of today’s final rule will go into effect in 180 days after publication in the Federal Register, which means that consumers unfortunately won’t be able to click-to-cancel this year. However, in early 2025, this rule will fully be in effect, and consumers will be able to cancel all those pesky subscriptions, from YouTube TV to Apple One with just a single click. And if a company is found violating the rules after this time period? According to the FTC, there will be consequences for these organizations, that will include financial compensation for customers.