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Cable Firms to FTC: We Shouldn’t Have to Let Users Cancel Service With a Click (www.wired.com)

submitted 9 months ago by dantheclamman@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] bleistift2@feddit.de 26 points 9 months ago (2 children)

German consumer protection FTW

The Fair Consumer Contracts Act will in future introduce a mandatory 2-step termination process […]. Wherever the consumer can conclude a subscription contract against payment, the provider should also give the consumer the opportunity to terminate at the same point. […A] cancellation button should be included on such registration pages for memberships at the first stage (with the wording “Cancel contracts here”). This “first” cancellation button should then lead to a confirmation page on the second level, where the respective user is identified and the consumer can effectively send the cancellation (i.e. with the wording “Cancel now”).

The law (German): https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bgb/__312k.html

[–] Mr_Blott@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Pretty sure this law applies to the whole EU though

[–] ruplicant@sh.itjust.works 1 points 9 months ago (2 children)

i really don't think so. i hope it will be so in the future

[–] Sinupret@feddit.de 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I was pretty sure that there is something and a lot of searching finally led me to the "Unfair Commercial Practices Directive" from 2005. There also is a guidance to that directive from 2021 that is found here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52021XC1229(05)

Section 4.2.7 (dark patterns) is what is interesting for this topic. In the paragraph at the end of the section it includes the sentence:

unsubscribing from a service should be as easy as subscribing to the service

So it appears that the EU intended it that way but because it's only a directive, implementation differs by country. I also didn't see anything about being able to cancel in the same way you subscribed(e.g. that they can't force you to call or send a letter if you subscribed online), but afaik german law has a ruling like this.

Edit: I took so long to write this and find the links that I forgot the german law was the reason for the comment I answered...

[–] Mr_Blott@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Under the GDPR, it must be “as easy to withdraw as to give consent”. You must make it very easy for people to unsubscribe: one or two clicks at most

[–] bleistift2@feddit.de 1 points 9 months ago

I’m not sure how the GDPR would apply to a service subscription. While the service is running, the companies have legitimate interest to keep your data, so you can’t have it removed.

[–] tormeh@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Not sure how well this has worked in practice. Lots of bad cancellation proceedures last time I had to do it

[–] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

The law was only introduced less than 1½ years ago. It takes time for this to trickle through all layers, but things are getting better.