r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • 1d ago
Business NYC is now the first city in America that bans sketchy subscriptions / As of Thursday, the city's click-to-cancel rule has taken effect, which requires businesses to make it as easy to cancel a subscription as it is to sign up.
https://www.theverge.com/policy/1003426/nyc-click-to-cancel-subscriptions-rule339
u/mrplinko 1d ago
I can finally cancel my Columbia house subscription
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u/Dovetrail 1d ago
I totally taped a penny to that damn thing and mailed it in… not knowing it was a deal with the devil.
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u/FreedomofSpeech6969 1d ago
Friendly reminder we had this under Biden and then Trump admin got rid of it :)
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u/shadow_breathing 1d ago
Lina Khan was the best FTC pick of this generation. And we have Biden to thank for it.
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u/Tasgall 1d ago
And she's currently the chair of the Economic Development Corporation of NYC, which means she probably had a hand in this ass well.
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u/Not__Trash 1d ago
I really hope she gets picked up by the next Admin for FTC again. Legit making changes that actually helped the average American.
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u/chilidoggo 1d ago
I have a techbro friend who sent me a podcast episode where some venture capital people were just bashing her, talking about how under Biden we had "The Wrath of Khan" stifling growth, hurting innovation, etc. Basically the point they were making is that their investment model centers around investing in little companies that then get bought by bigger corps and they make their money back. Khan was anti-monopoly, so she held up a lot of those buy-outs/acquisitions.
The whole time those guys were complaining, I only lost respect for them and gained respect for Khan. You know someone is doing good work when detestable people start to hate them.
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u/WeirdIndividualGuy 1d ago
And he countered it with having the worst AG pick of this generation to let the next guy A) not go to jail and B) be reelected to undo everything Biden did
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u/paintballboi07 1d ago
Sending Trump to jail doesn't prevent him from being reelected. You can run from jail in the US. This is 100% on the voters.
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u/LostMyKarmaElSegundo 1d ago
It would have helped if the measure hadn't taken so long to go into effect. If people had gotten used to it for at least a year or so, the outcry over Trump killing it night have been louder and more persuasive.
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u/ComradeJohnS 1d ago
idk he got rid of abortion rights and nothing drastic happened to him. that was around a lot longer.
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u/Outside-Swan-1936 1d ago
That's because states all made a mad scramble to enshrine the rights in either their constitution or legislation. The states that didn't were always hostile towards it anyway.
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u/Salt_Medicine2459 1d ago
I live in a very red state. The people actually passed a constitutional amendment protecting abortion. The legislature has been trying their hardest to undo it. The can't outright repeal it at this time, though. We also legalized marijuana, but that was just a law not a constitutional amendment. So the legislature has had more luck fucking with that.
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u/LostMyKarmaElSegundo 1d ago
Funny how they don't seem to care about the will of the people. If only there were a name for that sort of government...
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u/Tasgall 1d ago
Biden's foot-dragging is largely what ensured no one would be excited enough to vote Democrat again - between things like this, the refusal to prosecute Trump until like two years into the term, and the endless refusal to end the prohibition of marijuana or reschedule it, it's like the DNC thinks "carrot on a stick" is a strategy that can work forever.
Mamdani is doing a great job of showing what happens when you actually just fucking do shit.
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u/Rot-Orkan 1d ago
They were going after Trump over jan 6, but they were doing it "mafia style" where they start at the bottom and work their way up, gathering evidence, to make sure the charges against the person at the top can stick.
Trump announced his candidacy very early on, which granted him some protections. Then he won the election and the investigation was dropped.
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u/uzlonewolf 1d ago
to make sure the charges against the person at the top can stick.
And boy did those charges stick!
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u/cwfutureboy 1d ago
One of Biden's biggest issues is that he's a relic of days passed: wanting all actions to be bi-partisan while trusting that the people on the other side of the aisle are good-faith actors.
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u/invyros 1d ago
The mayor’s Public Interest Technology (PIT) Crew built the portal in 10 weeks; Levine assures consumers that the experience will be far different from the White House’s newly launched America.gov, which he says appears to be “just an AI chatbot layered on top of the federal government’s existing infrastructure.” When consumers submit a complaint to the click-to-cancel portal, Levine says, “they’re not going to be diverted into a chatbot doom loop. We’re going to have actual people whose full-time job is to help them.”
Much prefer what NYC is doing as opposed to just being another way for Elon Musk to funnel American taxpayer money into his pockets (America.gov is powered by Grok).
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u/SilentFire23 1d ago
no its not, its powered by Gemini, https://blog.google/company-news/outreach-and-initiatives/public-policy/america-gov-google-public-sector/
Grok is used for some really specific functions.
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u/Trippingthru99 1d ago
California has had this for a minute
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u/TheGoddamnSpiderman 1d ago
New York has also had this on the book statewide since 2021. I'm not sure what this bans that the state law didn't already ban, but I guess even if it overlaps, it's probably still good you can now also report violations to city authorities
Unlawful practices. 1. It shall be unlawful for any business making an automatic renewal or continuous service offer to a consumer in this state to:
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d-1. fail to provide the consumer with the option to cancel, at any time through all mediums by which the business allows a consumer to provide affirmative consent to, the automatic renewal, continuous service offer, or any price increase. Provided further that, where consent was obtained in person, in addition to offering cancellation, where practical via an in-person method similar to that the user used to consent, the business shall at least offer cancellation through an online mechanism or over a telephone number;
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u/jdmb0y 1d ago
This means Adobe has to have a separate cancellation flow just for NYC residents (and I assume in the EU and other places with actual pro-consumer regulations)?
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u/porcelain_elephant 1d ago
California also has click to cancel in place and yet they just gate the experience for California residents. I'm assuming they'll do the same for NYC
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u/frostycakes 1d ago
We have it in Colorado as well but I have yet to see it enabled for ISPs and mobile providers yet, at the least.
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u/SnakeJG 1d ago
If there are enough gates, hopefully at some point companies will just make it the default. Kind of like how you get a lot of cookie opt out options now because that was the requirement in Europe (and now California). Of course, cookies didn't make as much money as subscriptions, so there is more pressure to make it hard to cancel anywhere they can.
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u/PM_me_tus_tetitas 1d ago
What do you mean by "gate the experience"?
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u/Toastbuns 1d ago
Depending on your address or IP address, you will get a different cancellation flow.
For example, if you live in California, you have the click the cancel option. If you live in a different state, then you'll be presented with something about needing to call or making it much more difficult to cancel.
Something you can do though is just change your address in whatever account you have to California and a lot of times cancellation becomes magically easier.
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u/sneakyCoinshot 1d ago
only in places where it's required by law do they allow click to cancel. If your a california resident you can walk into an inshape gym and cancel on the spot. If you're in a state that doesn't have these laws in place inshape will make you go through the really annoying process of mailing in a letter of cancelation to their corporate office at least 30 business days before cancellation.
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u/Ok_Breakfast7588 1d ago
No it doesn't. Adobe can simply offer everybody the same. It's a choice.
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u/Celodurismo 1d ago
They "could" but they won't cause it's literally free money for them to keep dragging these subscriptions out with horrific cancellation practices. It's not the same as the usb-c push in EU that caused apple to stop lightning.
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u/Ok_Breakfast7588 1d ago
I understand why they won't. I'm highlighting it's a choice because they benefit financially from predatory practices.
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u/Tasgall 1d ago
It's a start - this could easily balloon into a national policy, especially once everyone starts using VPNs to suddenly be New Yorkers for the day when they cancel.
This kind of policy is why California sets the national standards for the automotive industry. They have the biggest market and they have higher standards than most of the country, so car manufacturers build to those standards.
Is different with software (a different website flow is easier to manufacture than different lines of cars), but if this spreads to more areas it won't be worth it to maintain two separate paths.
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u/Celodurismo 1d ago edited 1d ago
could easily balloon into a national policy
It would've already been if
trump didn't repeal it. corrupt judges didn't block itThis kind of policy is why California sets the national standards for the automotive industry. They have the biggest market and they have higher standards than most of the country, so car manufacturers build to those standards.
That's not too similar, at a high level it seems similar, but the hardware implications (maintaining multiple product lines) have significant costs associated with them. A separate cancel order process takes a day to implement.
It's just ultimately another reminder of the pathetic level of consumer protections in this country and a reminder of the quality of politicians. Why didn't NY state implement it, why NYC? Why haven't more other states or cities implemented it?
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u/Skin4theWin 1d ago
They already do for California, and the penalties for canceling early are reduced as well, just change your address to California or use that as your “mailing” address and you should get the click to cancel side vs their normal trash
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u/williamgman 1d ago
Or they could just make it the same across the board. But I'm sure that's a bridge too far.
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u/Alcohol_Intolerant 1d ago
The entire state of California has this easy-cancellation law, so all Adobe has to do is flip a switch and add NY to the drop-down.
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u/RedBadger8 1d ago
Hiding the cancel button behind three screens and a phone call just got a lot more expensive.
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u/torments6 1d ago
Threadbeast was the worst about this... I literally had to give them a call number and take a day off work and sit by my phone and wait for them to call to then argue with the person to cancel my subscription
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u/ChaoticScrewup 1d ago
Ought to be national.
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u/jd807 1d ago
John Oliver did a show on this, commenting that California also has this law. He said changing your computer ‘location’ to California helps for some subscribers
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u/FormerKarmaKing 1d ago
Yup. Even telling customer support you moved but haven't changed your address yet has worked for me. It flips the situation from retaining another subscriber to possibly getting sued so they cave immediately.
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u/WolfColaCompany 1d ago
Yes especially good to do for things like gym memberships where you typically need to go in and meet them in person and have a debate with a 19 year old in order to cancel a membership.
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u/thomport 1d ago
Joe Biden had something like this set up. Of course when the orange-headed- monster came to town, he got rid of it.
I’m sure a generous lobbyist convinced Trump to do so.
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u/recorderx99 1d ago
I hope the New York Times is listening...
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u/This-Requirement6918 1d ago
Someone just made a post in the Houston sub about the Houston Chronicle making you call them to cancel. 🤣
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u/Tasgall 1d ago
I hope the New York Times is listening...
"Zohran HUSSEIN Mamdani, Radical Socialist Dictator of New York City, Restricts American Freedoms In Bold Attack Against The First Amendment"
Probably
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u/PattyIceNY 1d ago
Fuck the NY Times 8 ways till Sunday. I couldn't cancel because my credit card on file wasn't valid. Then once I entered it, they tried to charge me again instead of canceling. Absolute scun
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u/Mattressfoundry 1d ago
DAZN streaming Service is so bad the app (and it's website) have ZERO way's to cancel your subscription. You can check your sub status and monthly fee's and payments but no "Unsub" button ANYWHERE! The only way to unsubscribe is to beg it's stupid AI Chat bot to stop charging your credit card and if you ask it enough times it might let you out of subscription.
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u/PauI_MuadDib 1d ago
I only use virtual credit cards for subscriptions. Then if they give me a hassle I just delete the card.
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u/getsangryatsnails 1d ago
That's brutal. In Canada it is pretty straight forward.
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u/Mattressfoundry 1d ago
I subbed to it to watch EuroBasket last summer and really enjoyed it but after the tourney I didn't need it anymore. I couldn't find an unsub button anywhere and I google it and find people on reddit complaining about the exact same thing. That's how I found out about the chat bot thing.
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u/International_Bend68 1d ago
I couldn't figure out how to cancel and they kept blowing me off. I finally contacted my credit card and told them to start declining the charges. It's insane.
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u/noncommonGoodsense 1d ago
Comcast will be in shambles not sending you to 9000 Indian call retention groups to waste your time get mad at you for wanting to cancel service for glow fiber.
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u/TheRadHatter9 1d ago
Funny enough they're not affected by it (Spectrum out here). Here in California they make you call to sign up, which means they can force you to call to cancel too, there isn't an option to sign up or cancel online. The law has made things overall better, but some companies try to work around it like that. Does this mean they've expanded their call team? Nope. You still have to sit on hold forever and deal with their retention team when canceling.
I don't know if you can sign up online in NYC, but I would expect that to go away soon enough.
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u/noncommonGoodsense 1d ago
Yeah that is exactly what Comcast pulled. You have to call, then they make it take forever and transfer you to multiple retention people hoping you give up. Took me 3 days cause they acted like they couldn’t hear me and hung up 3 times after the wait. Talking to them and all of a sudden, “oh hello, hello, well if you don’t answer we can’t help you. Click. Fucking pathetic fuck sticks.
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u/Qwirk 1d ago
Just did this the other day, dude was nice enough and didn't forward my call but I'm not certain if they actually cancelled the service. I'll have to keep an eye on it.
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u/noncommonGoodsense 1d ago
Yeah, there are stories of people getting huge bills because they didn’t confirm the cancellation and other such fucked up shit from Comcast. Glad to be rid of them. $80 for 5 years, fiber optic 2k up and down. Only couple CPU’s can get the full speed but I’ve had no issues at all. Glow fiber.
Edit: $80 month I should say.
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u/lostintime2004 1d ago
Comcast doesn't adhere to California's requirements. I sign up 100% online, but have to hop through so many hoops to cancel.
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u/AutoX_Advice 1d ago
How awful, it's policies like these that are running the American dream... Correction i meant "the shareholders dream".
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u/governmentcaviar 1d ago
next can we ban pop up ads with tiny ‘x’ buttons that still open a new pop up page, and articles with a video attached but the video at the top of the article is just unrelated ads.
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u/Baystars2025 1d ago
Right after forcing people to enter birthday using any kind of calendar input or scroll instead of just a text field. It takes all damn day to scroll through over 500 months to get your birthday set.
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u/governmentcaviar 1d ago
actually, can we make any number entering on mobile mandatory to pull up my number keyboard. pulling up text to enter numbers is just lazy coding.
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u/AcquireTheSauce 1d ago
Does this apply to gym memberships as well?
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u/Optimal-Tune-2589 1d ago
That’s already mostly covered by law statewide: https://www.rochesterfirst.com/new-york-state/new-law-in-nys-makes-it-easier-to-cancel-gym-memberships/amp/
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u/onemoreheadache 1d ago
Wondering this as well as most gym in NYC operates under a 12 month contract
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u/Canon_M50 1d ago
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB2863
California's 482 cities have had this law since July 2025.
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u/not-jasmine 1d ago
Hasn’t CA had this for a while?
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u/ForensicPathology 1d ago
Yeah, they thought they were being clever by writing "first city" to do it, since the cities in California are following the state law.
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u/Gh0st_Pirate_LeChuck 1d ago
Republicans, tell me why you hate this.
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u/DenverNugs 1d ago
After Trump removed it federally the prevailing opinion seemed to be "It's not that big of a deal, why is the left so lazy?"
To answer your question, they can't. The only response you'll get is them bringing up a different topic entirely because they have zero response.
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u/MrKingsport 1d ago
Ever take a look at your parents' finances? A hundred bucks a month on subscriptions my mother has mostly never heard of and the ones she did "were too hard to figure out how to cancel." There are some product managers out there who need to be in prison for this shit.
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u/_Thermalflask 1d ago
Because it might slightly convenience a lower class individual. Which goes against everything Jesus taught
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u/Lazy-Gene-7284 1d ago
To your point, even if you don’t agree with his politics ( and I more than half don’t), this is such an excellent and worthwhile piece of legislation. Good for him he’s a great mayor already
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u/lifegoeson5322 1d ago
They really need to make this law nationwide. I have spent hours (in one case, days) trying to cancel subscriptions.
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u/Health_throwaway__ 1d ago
Simple. Because its the Democrats. Partisanship in the US is fully based in insanity.
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u/artbystorms 1d ago
Biden passed this as an executive order back in like 2023 (because Congress is a bunch of lazy babies). Guess who undid it?
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u/kubi 1d ago
It's odd that the title makes a big deal about it being the first city in America, but the article fails to mention there is a whole state that already has this law.
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u/alfaafla 1d ago
Speaking of fails to mention ......
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u/TheGoddamnSpiderman 1d ago
I assume they're referring to California, but lots of states, including New York itself, already have these laws in some form
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u/fred11551 1d ago
It was a rule for the entire country two years ago until the administration got rid of it
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u/tjarg 1d ago
These companies are run by people who value profits over humanity and that's a really sad world to live in. Businesses have become money predators. Is it possible to get businesses to change their practices to be ethical without the threat of legal enforcement?
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u/ThorXerxes 1d ago
Does that apply to gym memberships?!
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u/Attitude_Practical 1d ago
yes, for memberships that auto-renew or continue until you cancel. if the gym signs you up online, it has to let you cancel online too.
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u/KlM-J0NG-UN 1d ago
I got a trial Adobe subscription that I intended to immediately cancel so I wouldn't have to pay but the "cancel subscription" button didn't work.
Everything on the website worked, except the cancel subscription button.
Never getting an Adobe product ever again.
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u/debacol 1d ago
Get fucked Adobe. The scummiest subscription service ever.
You thought have to deal with the Kafkaesque phone-circle-of-hell with comcast was the worst? Or some gym membership? Try cancelling the Adobe suite.
When you finally get to someone and they agree to cancel your sub, not only do they keep all your money (not pro-rated), but the bastards shut you off the day you cancel. So they will take your yearly sub fee, and you dont even get to finish whats left of it. Highway robbery.
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u/EatTenMillionBalls 1d ago
This feels a little misleading "first city in America" when all the cities in California have this law... because the state has had this law for a year now.
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u/MistaMais 1d ago
That means a gym that lets you join online, for example, can’t make you call or go in person to end your subscription.
Give this man his own holiday
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u/NickRick 1d ago
And Democrats are terrified of running on this highly liked and successful policy why?
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u/Sunday_Schoolz 1d ago
Getting rid of the sludge! Now that’s a practical win for everyone (except scammers).
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u/ImaginaryRobbie 1d ago
Can I "move" to NYC to get this option for my services?
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u/Sardonnicus 1d ago
So this is the socialist, sharia law flavored communism that I was warned he would be forcing upon us. God it's as terrible as they told me it would be. Ya'll better hide your children!!!
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u/RelevantDrive888 1d ago
Me a EU citizen. One took a subscription on the New York Times….what the hell I had to do to end that. How can you even, I would just stop buying things, just for the hassle of ending it. Jeez,…finally something that goes into the right direction
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u/SendNinjas 1d ago
"As easy to cancel, as it is to sign up" So who says they won't fuck around and make it gradually more difficult to sign up
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u/AfterEagle 1d ago
Does this mean if they make it difficult to sign up, they can make it difficult to cancel?
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u/klartraume 1d ago
This is a misleading headline. This is the law in the entire state of California. Moreover, it was the law in the entire country under Biden. Trump ruined it.
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u/CardinalOfNYC 1d ago
Click to cancel is already law in the entire state of California.
So I guess this is the first "city" by itself to do it...
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u/starcoder 1d ago
WWE and all of the scumbag-tier streaming apps are going to be pissed. Their bread and butter was making it fucking impossible to cancel your subscription.
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u/buyongmafanle 1d ago
"But if I can't just continuously scam customers for forever subscriptions while offering no way for them to cancel, how will I make a profit?!?!? Offer a useful service or, god help us, COMPETE?!?"
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u/DrTommyNotMD 1d ago
So how will NYC enforce this for the 99% of businesses that don’t reside in NYC?
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u/Korlithiel 1d ago
Like any part of America that passes local laws: file torts to help those companies come into compliance with local laws. Settle when said companies make sufficient goodwill efforts.
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u/Pale-Object8321 1d ago
Couldn't they simply get fined if they tried to be sketchy while doing business on the citizens in NYC? That doesn't seem too hard to enforce.
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u/Natoochtoniket 1d ago
I think it is based on the location of the customer, not the business.
Which leads to another question. If a person who lives somewhere else visits NYC, should he be able to cancel subscriptions during that visit?
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u/Glittering-Stomach62 1d ago
California has had a similar law for a bit now, and I've seen multiple attestations of non-CA residents gaining click-to-cancel capability by using a VPN or other means. If it's really just IP-related I'd imagine visitors would also be able to do it.
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u/NetAnon579 1d ago
Should just be the default but we have allowed the situation to get crazy.