A change in policy proposed by the Mamdani administration this week could make it easier for New Yorkers to cancel subscriptions, automatic renewals and continuous service offers, as part of the new mayor\u2019s wider crackdown on what he\u2019s described as \u201csubscription tricks and traps.\u201d<\/p>\n
The so-called \u201cclick to cancel\u201d proposal introduced by the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection would strengthen the city\u2019s existing, decades-old consumer protection law<\/a> in order to make it as easy for New Yorkers to cancel a subscription as it was to sign up.\u00a0<\/p>\n Companies that charge early cancellation fees, make customers jump through hoops to end subscriptions or charge hidden fees are already in violation of the city\u2019s consumer protection law, said DCWP commissioner Sam Levine. But the agency\u2019s proposed changes, which are subject to a 30-day public review period<\/a>, would \u201cstreamline\u201d the agency\u2019s efforts to investigate complaints and enforce the law, and allow the agency to impose fines and pursue restitution for ripped-off consumers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn an environment where people are really trying to save money, people have really busy lives, the idea that companies can trap New Yorkers in subscriptions, drive up their prices and waste their time is unacceptable to us,\u201d Levine told THE CITY.\u00a0<\/p>\n But it was not yet clear how long it would take for the city to implement the rule changes. Levine acknowledged that the agency\u2019s proposals may be subject to court challenges but said the agency is on \u201csolid legal ground.\u201d<\/p>\n The proposal stems from Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s Jan. 5 executive order<\/a> instructing DCWP to lead a citywide crackdown on hidden fees and subscription traps. The agency has already taken action, launching a compliance blitz against deceptive gym and health club memberships <\/a>and hotel junk fees.\u00a0<\/p>\n In pursuing the \u201cclick to cancel\u201d provision, the agency seeks to ensure customers can cancel subscriptions without any hassle, but also to ensure companies clearly spell out their subscription terms when customers sign up, said Levine. The agency, he said, already responds to consumer complaints of alleged violations of the city\u2019s consumer protection law, including predatory subscription and cancellation policies, but that these changes will help \u201cstreamline\u201d its probes.\u00a0<\/p>\n Amid this push, the agency may have a headcount challenge. The DCWP is facing budget cuts<\/a> in the mayor\u2019s preliminary budget for the upcoming fiscal year, despite its mandate growing in recent years to include enforcement of worker protection laws, including laws governing the rights of the city\u2019s more than 65,000 app-based delivery workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n With the proposal, Levine is taking some of his aggressive tactics from President Joe Biden\u2019s Federal Trade Commission to the local level. In 2024, when he was director of the FTC\u2019s consumer protection bureau, the agency introduced a set of rules that, among other things, sought \u201cclick to cancel\u201d provisions<\/a> at the federal level.\u00a0<\/p>\n That proposal faced fierce pushback from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation\u2019s largest trade organization, which said the regulations amounted to micromanaging business practices. A federal judge sided with the Chamber\u2019s legal challenges and killed<\/a> the federal \u201cclick to cancel\u201d rules last year.<\/p>\n Also during the Biden administration, the agency sought<\/a> legal action against Amazon for enrolling customers in Prime subscriptions without their consent and making it difficult for them to cancel, and pursued a separate action against Adobe for charging customers early cancellation fees. Last year, Amazon settled<\/a> with the FTC for $2.5 billion, and in March settled with Adobe for $150 million.<\/p>\n With the federal \u201cclick to cancel\u201d rules still in flux, consumer advocates say local jurisdictions need to step up in order to protect consumers.<\/p>\n Pat Garofalo, director of state policy at the American Economic Liberties Project, said Levine\u2019s proposal allows for a \u201cproactive\u201d approach to enforcement, in contrast with the federal government\u2019s approach of going on a case-by-case basis. Click-to-cancel rules, he said, \u201callows you to set the standard across the economy.\u201d He added that federal challenges don\u2019t prevent other jurisdictions from enacting their own rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe FTC is not doing much of anything,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019s really incumbent on other jurisdictions to step up and do the sort of things that the federal government has been negligent on.\u201d<\/p>\n Levine said that while the agency is willing to modify its proposals \u201cif necessary\u201d after the public comment process, \u201cwe\u2019re certainly not going to back down because, because lobbyists don\u2019t like the idea of having to give consumers their rights back.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A change in policy proposed by the Mamdani administration this week could make it easier for New Yorkers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-191181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}