Click-to-cancel requirements appear unavoidable

Click-to-cancel mechanisms will likely become an unavoidable legal requirement for publishers and media companies operating subscription products in the U.S., as the Federal Trade Commission seeks to formally mandate that companies “make it as easy for consumers to cancel [subscriptions and trials] as it is to sign up.” The FTC has been attempting to require click-to-cancel mechanisms for years but, by its own admission, “has only gotten part way to fixing the problem” of sellers making it “hard or impossible” to cancel subscriptions. To remedy that, the commission proposed a formal provision late last month that would require publishers (and other companies selling subscriptions) to offer straightforward self-service cancellation mechanisms. “If you can sign up online, yo