• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, February 20, 2025

The Federal Trade Commission lacked authority to issue broad click-to-cancel rules that aim to let consumers easily terminate subscriptions to newspapers, gyms, and other businesses, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Chamber of Commerce, cable lobby and other organizations.

The groups contend in papers filed this week with the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals that the FTC may only issue rules that “target well-defined unlawful practices in particular industries,” as opposed to rules "that limit commerce across the economy.”

The organizations are asking the appellate court to strike down the regulations, which were passed last October in a 3-2 vote. Both Republicans on the commission, including current chair Andrew Ferguson, voted against passage.

Among other provisions, the click-to-cancel rules require companies to offer a “simple” cancellation mechanism, and allow consumers to cancel subscriptions through the same medium that was used to purchase them. The rules also provide that cancellation mechanisms must be “at least as easy to use” as the sign-up mechanisms.

In practice, the requirements mean that businesses that accept subscriptions through online platforms must also allow people to cancel through an online platform.

The commission first proposed the rules in March 2023, claiming they “would go a long way to rescuing consumers from seemingly never-ending struggles to cancel unwanted subscription payment plans for everything from cosmetics to newspapers to gym memberships.”

Last year, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Michigan Press Association, NCTA -- The Internet & Television Association, Chamber of Commerce and other business groups sued to invalidate the rules.

A three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit recently rejected the organizations' request to temporarily block enforcement. That ruling was only preliminary, and the court can still strike down the rules after considering the groups' new arguments.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau and other challengers contend in their their new papers that the FTC can only issue rules that “define with specificity” what acts are unfair or deceptive. The click-to-cancel rules, according to the challengers, are too broad and too vague to meet that standard.

“By definition, a Rule that targets over a billion commonplace contracts used by 220 million American consumers and businesses in every industry from newspapers to health care” is not specific, the organizations argue.

They add that the FTC didn't define key terms in the rules -- including the words “easy” and “simple.”

“Companies will need to guess whether scrolling down a webpage requires too much effort to be 'easy,' or whether their identity verification procedures are too difficult to be 'simple,' among countless other judgment calls,” the groups write.

The FTC is expected to file papers with the appellate court in March.