ACCC Boss Wants New Powers To Crack Down On Online Businesses That Make It Hard To Cancel Subscriptions (theguardian.com) 18
Now Australian online businesses that put up hurdles to make it harder for customers to unsubscribe from their services may face a crackdown from the federal government, with plans to be unveiled later this year. The Guardian reports: The practice of "forced continuity" or "subscription trapping" involves building design features of a website or app in a way that impedes a customer's ability to cancel a particular service. The chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Gina Cass-Gottlieb, said in a speech to the National Press Club on Wednesday a prohibition on unfair trade practices would help protect consumers and small businesses "exposed to manipulative practices designed to get them to agree to unfair or unfavorable contract terms".
The consumer watchdog has called for new powers in Australian consumer law to crack down on such practices since 2017. A spokesperson for the regulator said subscription traps can cause "significant harm to consumers and some small businesses." "These practices make it difficult for consumers to cancel subscriptions after fixed-term periods, with the consequence that many subscriptions roll over to paid subscriptions despite consumers no longer utilizing or wanting them," the spokesperson said. The report cites a discrepancy in the steps required to canceled an Amazon Prime subscription. In Europe, "there is a simple two-step process," reports the Guardian. "But customers in Australia must navigate four convoluted steps, with the wording and location of the cancellation button changing between each screen."
This is due to Australia's lack of unfair trading practices laws that exist in Europe and other countries.
The consumer watchdog has called for new powers in Australian consumer law to crack down on such practices since 2017. A spokesperson for the regulator said subscription traps can cause "significant harm to consumers and some small businesses." "These practices make it difficult for consumers to cancel subscriptions after fixed-term periods, with the consequence that many subscriptions roll over to paid subscriptions despite consumers no longer utilizing or wanting them," the spokesperson said. The report cites a discrepancy in the steps required to canceled an Amazon Prime subscription. In Europe, "there is a simple two-step process," reports the Guardian. "But customers in Australia must navigate four convoluted steps, with the wording and location of the cancellation button changing between each screen."
This is due to Australia's lack of unfair trading practices laws that exist in Europe and other countries.
Apple (Score:5, Informative)
Oh man Apple better look out if this comes through. Its subscription TV servies are *horrible* to try and unsubscribe from. As best as I can work out they moved the unsubscribe bit from the TV app into iTunes, then into the App store, and involves multiple drill-down steps into seemingly unrelated menu options.
You absolutely can *not* ffind it without a tutorial. Its extremely unfriendly design from a company that actually can rightffully claim to be experts of friendly UI design.
Which means this is on purpose. They are *trying* to make it hard to unsubscribe because .... well, everything this lawsuit is about really.
I hope Apple realises the ACCC doesn't fuck about. It was them that slugged valves with big-boy fines for not offering legal refund terms (ie lifetime warranty for defective software).
And as things tend to go, if the law works well here, the Europeans will likely do it too, and those cats have no inhibitions against issuing silly-money fines to foreign corporations who wont respect local laws.
Re:Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
Yep, these sort of dark patterns really need to go. And frankly, the more countries (or US states) adopt laws prohibiting them, the more it's likely that companies will decide that it's really not worth having multiple ways of cancelling subscriptions (the easy/EU way and the pain-in-the-ass/Rest-of-the-world method), and will just give straightforward cancellation methods.
Sometimes people bitch about over-regulation of government, but fuck it all, shit like this is WHY new regulations and laws get created. Otherwise, there will likely be some asshole who takes advantage of the loophole, and from then forward (after government eventually respond), every other business (who may have been playing nice), has to do extra work to make sure they're complying with the new regulations. Regulations typically don't happen in a vacuum.
Re: (Score:2)
I cancelled my Apple TV "subscription" (free trial) the same way as my HBO Max and others: I used a one-off alternate credit card number from my CC company. Then when I wanted the subscription to end, I simply deactivated that CC#.
Problem solved.
Re: (Score:3)
I'm confused by this post. Over the past few years I've cancelled and reactivated my Apple TV+ subscription a few times without hassle.
The steps on an iPhone are: 1) Go to "Settings" 2) select your iCloud account 3) Go to "Subscriptions" 4) Press "Cancel" next to "Apple TV+". The steps on a PC are slightly different, but still boil down to 1) iCloud Account Settings 2) Manage Subscriptions 3) Cancel.
Not sure what steps could be eliminated? Where do you want the "Cancel" button to be instead?
Could be worse (Score:3)
"To cancel, thou must givith up thy first born and accept a pox on thy house for the next 100 years" - at least this is what I expect in America the way things are going.
It might actually improve business (Score:5, Interesting)
The "easy to subscribe, tough to cancel". dates back to AOL in the 90s.
SiriusXM? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
It's not that difficult if you are really determined to cancel, but be prepared for the numerous incentives they will offer to keep you. "How about an entire year for just $5 a month (plus fees and required licenses). But they are fairly good about reminding you that you are about to enter a new cycle and your account will be billed at the full rate once the promotional rate expires. But you can usually call to cancel and get a new promotional offer.
The worst thing is even if you do unsubscribe they will
The Catholic Church? (Score:2)
Somebody got me a membership when I was a few days old, where can I click 'Unsubscribe'?
Re: (Score:2)
https://www.theguardian.com/co... [theguardian.com]
Former lutherian here. It was quite easy to unsubscribe when I was an adult.
Some countries (like Germany) have a church tax, so if you list yourself as catholic or a number of other religions in the sensus you get to pay 8-9% in church tax.
Wouldn't you rather keep that money?
https://allaboutberlin.com/glo... [allaboutberlin.com]
Re: (Score:2)
"Former lutherian here. It was quite easy to unsubscribe when I was an adult."
Former Catholic here, I'm from Luxembourg and the local Atheist Club does the work for anybody, just give them your date of birth, where you where baptized and they dress up a letter to the Bishop demanding the end of membership.
They even pay for the stamp and envelope.
The bishop even sends back a nastygram, warning you, that you should not expect a magical man for your funeral or wedding.
I framed mine and hung it on the toilet.
"S
Changing credit card number doesn't work (Score:3)
There's a "feature" that credit card companies have that transmits your new number to the merchant so you don't have to inform them when your credit card changes. Therefore if you think changing your credit card number can stop those subscriptions being charged, that's not true in many cases. It's a real hassle. Banks should have an feature on their site that lists subscription accounts and allows you to block them.
Re: (Score:2)
There's a "feature" that credit card companies have that transmits your new number to the merchant so you don't have to inform them when your credit card changes.
Sorry-not-sorry for shilling for American Express here...had exactly this issue, and they kept both CC numbers active until the new card arrived. I called up, they canceled the old number entirely, and all of a sudden I was getting notifications that my credit card got declined and they 'threatened' to suspend my service due to nonpayment. Suddenly the calls to cancel the account were a lot easier, because now there was no leverage; "this is me informing you that I am terminating my account; you're not gett