A federal appeals court has blocked the US Federal Trade Commission’s “click-to-cancel” rule just days before it was scheduled to take effect, dealing a blow to consumers who had pushed for easier subscription cancellations.<\/p>\n
In October last year, the FTC approved<\/a> the rule that would require companies to make canceling subscriptions as simple as signing up for them.<\/p>\n The change was expected to affect music streaming giants like Spotify<\/b>, Apple<\/b> Music<\/b>, and Amazon Music<\/b>, which collectively serve hundreds of millions of subscribers in the US and globally.<\/p>\n However, the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit<\/b> vacated the rule on Tuesday (July 8), citing \u201cprocedural error\u201d in the FTC\u2019s rulemaking process. The rule was set to take effect on Monday (July 14).<\/p>\n The court found that the FTC failed to conduct a required preliminary regulatory analysis for rules with economic impacts exceeding $100 million <\/b>annually.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile we certainly do not endorse the use of unfair and deceptive practices in negative option marketing, the procedural deficiencies of the Commission\u2019s rulemaking process are fatal here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n