On October 16, the FTC announced a final Negative Option Rule, also known as the “click-to-cancel” rule, requiring sellers to make it as easy for consumers to cancel their enrollment as it was to sign up for the goods or services in the first instance. As previously covered by InfoBytes, the FTC issued its NPRM seeking feedback to its proposed amendments to the agency’s Negative Option Rule, which is used to combat unfair or deceptive practices related to subscriptions, memberships, and other recurring-payment programs.

The FTC highlighted two major changes to the originally proposed rule, which include: (i) the exclusion of requiring sellers to provide annual reminders to consumers about the negative option feature of their subscription, so that sellers are no longer obligated to send yearly notifications to remind consumers of their ongoing subscription and its terms; and (ii) the removal of prohibiting sellers from informing consumers about plan modifications or reasons to keep their existing agreement during the cancellation process, so sellers can discuss alternative plans or reasons to stay subscribed with consumers seeking to cancel, only if the consumer agrees to hear about them first.

The FTC provided a fact sheet highlighting the objectives of the rule. The rule will take effect 180 days after publication in the Federal Register.