{"id":945,"date":"2023-04-14T16:24:30","date_gmt":"2023-04-14T20:24:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/?p=945"},"modified":"2023-04-14T16:24:30","modified_gmt":"2023-04-14T20:24:30","slug":"ftcs-proposed-click-to-cancel-rule-for-online-commerce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/2023\/04\/14\/ftcs-proposed-click-to-cancel-rule-for-online-commerce\/","title":{"rendered":"FTC\u2019s Proposed Click to Cancel Rule for Online Commerce"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Federal Trade Commission\u2019s proposed click to cancel rule requires companies to provide more detailed information and notices about cancelling automatic renewals, subscriptions, and memberships which are prevalent in online commerce.\u00a0 The proposed rule, titled Negative Option Rule, is at: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/system\/files\/ftc_gov\/pdf\/p064202_negative_option_nprm.pdf\">https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/system\/files\/ftc_gov\/pdf\/p064202_negative_option_nprm.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The goal of the proposed rule is to combat unfair or deceptive practices that include recurring charges for products or services consumers do not want and cannot cancel without undue difficulty.\u00a0 The FTC is currently seeking comments on the proposed rule until April 19, 2023.<\/p>\n<p>The proposed rule would require canceling via a negative-option program to be easy and available through the same means as signing up.\u00a0 For example, if a company offers one-click membership sign-up through its website, then the company must also offer one-click cancellation through the same website.<\/p>\n<p>Other substantive requirements of the proposed rule include annual reminders for customers of programs that do not involve the shipment of physical goods, pre-billing disclosure requirements, express consent for subscription terms separate from the rest of the transaction, and limits on the ability to offer special deals to customers attempting to cancel.<\/p>\n<p>To help comply with this anticipated rule, companies should:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Catalog<\/span>:\u00a0 Catalog their negative-option marketing offerings under the broad definition provided by the FTC under the proposed rule<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Representations<\/span>:\u00a0 Review the processes associated with these offerings, including representations they make concerning any aspect of a product or service involving negative-option marketing to ensure they are accurate<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Pre-bill disclosures<\/span>:\u00a0 Review pre-billing disclosures to ensure all material terms of a deal are disclosed to consumers before they enter their billing information and that express consent to the subscription is obtained<\/li>\n<li><span>Involve IT<\/span>:\u00a0 Communicate with their IT departments to develop a simple cancellation procedure which includes annual notifications for consumers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Federal Trade Commission\u2019s proposed click to cancel rule requires companies to provide more detailed information and notices about cancelling automatic renewals, subscriptions, and memberships which are prevalent in online commerce.\u00a0 The proposed rule, titled Negative Option Rule, is at: https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/system\/files\/ftc_gov\/pdf\/p064202_negative_option_nprm.pdf The goal of the proposed rule is to combat unfair or deceptive practices that &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/2023\/04\/14\/ftcs-proposed-click-to-cancel-rule-for-online-commerce\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;FTC\u2019s Proposed Click to Cancel Rule for Online Commerce&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1050],"ppma_author":[976],"class_list":["post-945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-infotechtelecom","tag-ftc-ecommerce"],"authors":[{"term_id":976,"user_id":265,"is_guest":0,"slug":"srwiggins","display_name":"Sheila Raftery Wiggins","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2021\/12\/wigginssheila-100x100.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}