NYC's click-to-cancel rule is now in effect to save consumers from subscription hell

New York City's click-to-cancel rule is now in effect, after Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the legislation back in July. As the name suggests, this forces companies to make it much easier to cancel stuff. We've all experienced subscription traps before, in which businesses (like gyms) make it extremely easy to sign-up for something but mandate a Kafka-esque maze to get out of that same thing. It's not fun.

"As the name suggests, the rule forbids companies from letting you breezily click on a few boxes to sign up online, while requiring you to navigate a byzantine network of phone calls and carrier pigeons to unsubscribe," the city wrote in a blog post.

This is the first time a municipal rule seeks to protect American consumers from this kind of thing, though some states have jumped onboard with their own regulations. The NYC law looks to be similar to proposed national FTC protections under former chair Lina Khan. They never happened, as the plan was officially killed by President Trump's version of the FTC and a federal appeals court. Khan serves in the Mamdani administration as the unpaid chair of the board of directors for the New York City Economic Development Corporation, so the similarity makes sense.

NYC's rule will be enforced by the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. Businesses in violation of the legislation will be liable for civil penalties, which start at $525. Additionally, consumers could start getting refunds for money that's already been scooped out of their bank accounts.

As of today, companies must clearly explain subscription terms to consumers and they must disclose any and all consumer rights when it comes to buying or canceling subscriptions. They also have to provide people with a straightforward cancellation process "in the same method as sign-up." Finally, they cannot ask people to ship stuff that they initially gave out for free.

There's an easy way to rat on these companies, via a complaint form. The Mamdani administration says this should be used if it was hard to cancel a subscription or if a business delayed canceling a subscription, among other reasons. In other words, the city's Planet Fitness, Crunch and La Fitness locations had better make some changes real quick.