• by Wendy Davis , July 30, 2025

A federal lawmaker on Wednesday introduced a bill that would enable consumers to easily terminate recurring subscriptions to newspapers, gyms, and other businesses.

The Click to Cancel Act of 2025, unveiled by Representative Brad Sherman (D-California), would codify a set of rules passed by the Federal Trade Commission, but struck down by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals after a challenge by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and other groups.

Those rules -- which had been slated to go into effect this month -- would have required companies to allow consumers to cancel subscriptions through the same medium that was used to purchase them, and offer a "simple" cancellation mechanism. In practice, the rules would have required businesses that accept subscriptions through online platforms to also allow people to cancel through an online platform.

The regulations were passed last October in a 3-2 vote. Both Republicans on the commission, including current chair Andrew Ferguson, voted against passage.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau, Michigan Press Association, NCTA -- The Internet & Television Association, Chamber of Commerce and others challenged the rules, arguing that they were too broad, and that the FTC passed them without first studying their potential economic impact.

A panel of the 8th Circuit sided with the Interactive Advertising Bureau and other challengers, ruling that FTC's failure to conduct an economic study deprived critics of "a notable opportunity to dissuade the FTC" from passing the rules.

The appellate judges based the decision on an earlier ruling by administrative law judge Carol Fox Foelak, who found last year that complying with the FTC's proposed rules would cost businesses in the U.S. at least $100 million. That finding was significant because the FTC is supposed to conduct an in-depth economic analysis of the possible impact of regulations that would affect the economy by $100 million or more.

The appellate panel said Foelak's finding required the FTC to issue a "preliminary regulatory analysis," which should have included "a description of reasonable alternatives to the proposed rule, a cost-benefit analysis of each alternative, and an assessment of the effectiveness of the proposed rule and each alternative in achieving the Commission’s stated objectives in promulgating the rule."