Answer: Because they’re afraid you might do it accidentally if it’s too easy.
July 07, 2023•
Shutterstock/Inside Creative House
Ever noticed how a lot of companies make it really easy to sign up for their subscription service, but it’s a lot more difficult to cancel said service? Well, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has noticed too. The public comment period on a new FTC proposal to make canceling subscriptions as easy as a single click just ended, and it sounds like businesses are not pleased with the idea.
Groups representing major publishers and advertisers commented that the difficult subscription cancellation process is actually in place to protect consumers from accidental cancellations.
“If sellers are required to enable cancellation through a single click or action by the consumer, accidental cancellations will become much more common, as consumers will not reasonably expect to remove their recurring goods or services with just one click,” the Association of National Advertisers wrote in a statement.
Consumers, however, don’t appear to agree. According to the Wall Street Journal, their comments on the FTC’s proposal were generally in favor of the idea. Many shared their stories of awful experiences attempting to cancel an unwanted subscription, which sometimes took months to achieve. According to a survey by Chase Bank, 71 percent of Americans spend at least $50 a month on unwanted subscription fees. It’s not unreasonable to assume that they would cancel those subscriptions if they could, but the process is too difficult.
