CCPC wants to make it easier to cancel subcriptions

[arbitron]

Irish watchdog says its way too hard to cancel online subscriptions

IRELAND’S CONSUMER WATCHDOG has called for a new ‘easy in, easy out’ EU law on cancelling online subscriptions.

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) told Brussels it is too often much more difficult for consumers to get out of digital contracts than to sign up to them.

The European Commission is currently drafting a Digital Fairness Act to tackle deceptive and manipulative website and app design, among other harmful practices.

So many companies are guilty of sharp practice on subscriptions. Easy to sign up, a complete pain to cancel. I signed up for a newspaper sub online but when I wanted to cancel you couldn't do it from your online account or by email - you had to phone them during business hours Mon-Fri. Deliberately inconvenient for anyone working. And then you get a salesperson trying to pressure you to stay. If a company offers a subscription through a particular method (website, email, phone) then they should have to allow cancellation by that same method.

Free trials that roll into paid subscriptions should require an email reminder before being charged, with an easy cancellation option. And they should give a cooling off period of a few days to cancel for a refund. The modern world has so many subcriptions it is just too difficult for people to keep track. It is anti-consumer and anti-capitalist to have a chunk of your revenue dependent on people forgetting they are about to switch into a paid subscription. Rent-seeking behaviour.

 

[peemac]

I reckon companies would actually get more subscribers if they had an easy to cancel option.

Classic example is Netflix - the most successful streaming service where a simple single click allows you cancel the account. They don't try and entice you to stay or make you give any reason - simply click and your account is stopped.

I will never sign up to Sky again as they make it far too difficult to cancel.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

The article raises a good point about Amazon Prime

I bought a book recently and had to really think through the message to know if I was signing up for Amazon Prime or not.


I don't think I did but wasn't sure.

The default option should never be to sign into something.

Brendan

 

[charlie007]

The trick with Amazon is to initially say 'No thanks, proceed to offer'
They will often come back with a very good offer of £1 per month or even a free period!
As usual you make sure to cancel before the end of the offer period.
This is my experience of Amazon.UK.
I have Prime free on Amazon.ie with an Eir TV subscription.

I do however agree that something has to be done about the auto-renewals, which I'm sure are catching out many.

 

[Lightning]

The CCPC proposal just says they want to make it "easy" to cancel. The CCPC need to get more specific.

In California and other places, there is a law that states if you can subscribe to a service online you must be allowed cancel online. The CCPC should call for this to be the law here too.

 

[Savvy]

I will never sign up to Sky again as they make it far too difficult to cancel.

In California and other places, there is a law that states if you can subscribe to a service online you must be allowed cancel online.

100% agree to these point, for instance Sky are happy to allow you to upgrade online and make it very easy but requires a phone call to downgrade.

 

[JoeRoberts]

The CCPC should call for this to be the law here too.

Of course but will be told they need to see the bigger picture as the online industry is funding a large part of our economy through taxes.

 

[Duddaa]

Completely agree with this. I've clicked block future payments in Revolut for certain subscriptions as it was easier than ringing up during certain hours to cancel.

Edit: if this is brought in by Europe then does it matter what the CCPC want? They'll have to follow suit and enforce it.