Wow, it might actually get easier to cancel your streaming subscriptions
We don't get to write positive headlines about the state of the streamer-subscriber relationship very often, so please indulge us while we revel in this one for a moment. To be fair, we can only write it because one side's practices (we bet you can guess which one) have gotten so bad that the federal government needed to step in and give them a little slap on the wrist. But, hey—we'll take it!
Per The Hollywood Reporter, the FTC finalized a "click to cancel" initiative today that will actually make it easier to cancel unwanted subscriptions without going through the sort of arcane paperwork hell that would inspire even the most level-headed people to undergo the Severance procedure. Under the new ruling, streamers and other subscription services must provide simple cancellation mechanisms to, in essence, make it as easy to cancel as it is to sign up. That means no more free trials silently converting into paid subscriptions, no more 17-step processes with an agent on the phone, and no more "are you sure you want to cancel?" Ahh, freedom. It feels so good.
The new rules will take effect on April 14, 2025—in other words, 180 days from today. That's just in time to shamelessly sign up for a new service just for that one hot summer show, only to cancel it when it's not as good as the memes and TikTok edits made it seem (or [name a streamer] cancels it first). "Too often, businesses make people jump through endless hoops just to cancel a subscription," said FTC chair Lina M. Khan. "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."
Big Streamer disagrees, of course. In a joint filing opposing the changes, the Motion Picture Association and Entertainment Software Association called the ruling "unworkable in many respects, and its strict requirements will likely hamper industry, while doing little to protect consumers from the minority of bad actors that engage in the most egregious forms of deceptive negative option marketing." From everything we've seen over the past year and change, the "bad actors" in this situation hardly seem like a minority. The FTC just needs to do gyms next.