The solution here would be to mandate full symmetry: if you require muliple steps and confirmations to UNsubscribe or cancel, you must have the exact same steps to subscribe too. I think it would fix this problem very quickly

They don't worry about people accidentally signing up for some reason.

Yeah I guess in much the same way using ublock origin could lead to me missing out on hot milfs in my area.

Amazing how we are expected to treat bad faith actors with benefit of doubt...

It's clearly a bad faith argument. The real logic is that if they make cancelling easy, frustrated people will do it. If cancelling is annoying or difficult enough, some people will give up and keep paying.

Yes, it is definitely impossible to create a system that confirms a user's selection. It is also impossible to make it so you can resume the subscription if accidentally canceled... or maybe, just maybe there is another reason why they want it the way it is.

Give me a fucking break

Let's say I'm the dumbest person alive and I canceled it without wanting to. Are they saying I'm so dumb that I can't subscribe again like I once did?

Companies also often try to stop customers from leaving by offering them better deals before they complete the cancellation process. A “call to cancel” mechanism lets some companies personalize a better deal for a would-be fleeing customer, and better understand why customers are leaving, some customer experience executives say.

This is very similar to how AOL operated back in day. The excuses they use for the abuse they give customers is just amazing.

This is called a lie, folks.

Then just make a prompt that asks "Are you sure you want to cancel our services?".

"First they came for the hot singles in my area and I said nothing. Now, as they try to take my hot new deals, I must legislate"

If a company makes it hard for me to cancel I won't mess around with them I'll just cancel the direct debit on my side and they can deal with it.

I will try and cancel using the approved method but really it's their responsibility to let you terminate the contract. After all what are they going to do, not let me open the contract again later on, of course they're not, so the onus is on them.

A video game trade group called the Entertainment Software Association also sent a comment critical of the FTC proposals, arguing it could interfere with its ability to suggest recurring payment in the middle of gameplay.

Instead of investigating Hunter bidens penis congress should be busy burning big business to the ground

It doesn't go far enough. For monthly payments you should have to confirm them at least annually with a positive assertion. When your card number changes, you should have to assert it as well.

The "convenience" of automatic payments and automatic updates of card numbers has let AOL and their like bilk millions and millions from people that forgot they were paying them.

California already has a law for this and they’re doing just fine

Sure, sounds real...

Well for sure companies think their customers are idiots. To what degree they actually are is questionable.

Lol, making us go to the actual website, not the app. Making us hunt down somewhere in “settings,” and not billing, to find the cancel button. Then clicking through 4 pages to complete the process…

Solid defense on that line of thought

Can we list the companies and boycott them?

Man, I remember back when the ESA were the good guys, when Jack Thompson tried to be famous.

I mean... they're not wrong.

But it is the right way to do business.