ST. LOUIS—A panel of judges at the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a controversial Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulation on Tuesday that requires online subscription services to have a simplified way for users to cancel subscriptions. "Click-to-cancel," as the FTC refers to it, is the requirement to offer users a literal button or measure by which to cancel subscriptions to platforms instead of the often obscured method of doing so.
Such a regulation requires all digitally-native businesses in the U.S. to obtain a customer's consent before charging for a monthly or annual membership, auto-renewals and other programs linked to free trial offers marketed by platforms. Click-to-cancel regulations are popular among public interest and consumer rights groups.
FTC announced the "click-to-cancel" negative option regulation covering online subscription services back in October 2024, as AVN reported. The FTC published the final rule in the Federal Register, with the majority of the rule's provisions entering force 180 days after it was published. Industry trade groups sued to block the Federal Trade Commission with the intent to block the rule. Due to the litigation, the appeals court in St. Louis, Missouri, ordered the federal rule to be vacated days before it entered force.
"I’m very pleased with the decision because I always believed the click-to-cancel rule was overly aggressive and unnecessary," adult industry attorney Corey Silverstein told AVN. "The FTC, through existing rules [...] already had all the tools they needed to pursue companies and entities engaging in fraudulent and deceptive trade practices."
