• by Wendy Davis , January 7, 2025

The Interactive Advertising Bureau, Michigan Press Association, cable lobby and other business groups say their members will face “extensively documented, irreparable harms,” if the Federal Trade Commission's new click-to-cancel rule takes effect.

The groups are pressing the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals to block new FTC regulations that aim to enable consumers to easily cancel recurring subscriptions to newspapers, gyms, retailers and other businesses.

The click-to-cancel regulations include requirements that companies offer simple cancellation mechanisms, and let consumers cancel subscriptions through the same medium that was used to purchase them. In practice, those requirements mean that companies that let people use an online platform to subscribe must also let people cancel online.

The regulations -- which were approved by a 3-2 vote, with Republican commissioners Melissa Holyoak and Andrew Ferguson voting against them -- will take effect January 19, unless blocked in court.

The FTC says the rules will address “widespread" practices that make it difficult for consumers to terminate subscriptions.

“Too often, businesses make people jump through endless hoops just to cancel a subscription,” FTC Chair Lina Khan stated last year. “The FTC's rule will end these tricks and traps, saving Americans time and money. Nobody should be stuck paying for a service they no longer want.”

But the IAB, Chamber of Commerce, Michigan Press Association,  NCTA -- The Internet & Television Association and others claim the FTC exceeded its authority by passing the regulations, arguing that the new rule “usurps Congress's policy judgments.”

“Congress has enacted multiple statutes that govern recurring subscriptions, each narrower than this rule,” the groups write in papers filed last week with the 8th Circuit.

They also contend that the regulations will harm businesses, including by forcing them to incur additional expenses.

“There's a mountain of evidence -- fourteen sworn declarations from a wide variety of businesses about how they each operate and how complying with the rule will cause lost goodwill and other harms,” the groups write.

For instance, Aaron Velthoven, vice president for marketing and events for Detroit Free Press, said in a court declaration that the newspaper will have to “devote time and resources to implement the simple cancellation mechanism,” and “redo contract templates, and revise employee training and scripts for its customer service representatives.”

He added that the requirement to allow cancellation through the same medium as signups “will require the Detroit Free Press to incur expenses to ensure not just that there are internet options for anyone who subscribed online, but also phone, mail, and even in-person options if there are customers who used any of these alternative means of signup.”