Everyone has been burned at least once by an unsolicited auto-renewal.
Whether you forget to cancel your free Disney+ trial after binging The Mandalorian, or forget to dump Hinge after one too many disappointing dates, so-called subscription traps are big business.
These non-consensual auto-renewals are a non-insignificant part into subscription-based companies’ revenues.
Precisely to what extent is, of course, impossible to quantify; it’s not as if Netflix, Amazon, Bumble, Adult Coloring Monthly and the like put aside a specific accounting line in their financial statements.
But data supplied by Citizens’ Advice estimates that up to half a billion pounds was spent between December 2021 and December 2021 on subscriptions that auto-renewed without people realising.
The government’s own figures are even higher at £1.6bn.
Auto rollovers “can lead to people being trapped in unwanted or unused subscriptions for months and even years”, said Citizens Advice.
Tactics such as burying future costs and exit fees in small print and offering free trials that require cancellation, which many people forget to do, are often used.
The charity has been campaigning for a ban on auto-renewals, a move that is supported by over 80% of the British population.
The new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Bill introduced by the UK government today will go some ways to meeting Citizens Advice’s goals. Under new rules, businesses must:
- Provide clearer information to consumers before they enter a subscription contract
- Issue a reminder to consumers that a free trial or low-cost introductory offer is coming to an end
- Issue a reminder before a contract auto-renews onto a new term and
- Ensure consumers can exit a contract in a straightforward, cost-effective and timely way
GDPR was a godsend for cleaning up countless email subscriptions clogging up our inboxes; DMCC will take this concept further by potentially saving account holders billions.