Music on demand. Television programs. Mobile phone service. Professional sports telecasts. Audiobooks. News. Videogames. Computer software.
A growing number of products and services are being sold by online subscription, offering more convenience and customization but also a new set of problems for consumers. Companies have been accused of signing people up for subscriptions without their consent, renewing their subscriptions without notice, and imposing a gantlet of obstacles to anyone seeking to unsubscribe.
Californians will soon be getting more protection against these sorts of abuses, however, including the right to unsubscribe with one click of the mouse. On Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 2863 by Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo (D-Chatsworth), which imposes a series of safeguards on subscription contracts signed or renewed after July 1, 2025.
“Consumers have had it with rampant automatic subscriptions where it is close to impossible to put a stop to something a consumer no longer wants,” said Robert Herrell, executive director of the Consumer Federation of California, which sponsored the bill. “It should be as simple to get out of a subscription as it is to get into one.”
The measure applies to subscriptions or purchasing agreements that automatically renew, continue until terminated, or convert from free to paid automatically unless canceled. Before putting a consumer’s bill on autopilot, the law says, businesses must obtain “express affirmative consent.” In other words, no one should be surprised to find that they have been enrolled.
It also requires businesses to give customers a simple way to cancel — as simple and convenient, in fact, as the mechanism for signing up. In addition to a toll-free phone line, businesses will have to provide an online option that enables customers to cancel by clicking on a link or sending a preformatted email.
Beyond that, the law requires businesses to send subscribers an annual reminder about the subscription’s cost and how to cancel, as well as advance notice of changes in the price.
“California now has the most comprehensive law in the nation” on subscription services, Herrell said in a statement Tuesday. “From gym memberships to software subscriptions to wine clubs, consumers should have control of their subscriptions and no longer endure endless stalling tactics to keep your money.”
As California lawmakers were coming up with their own consumer protections, the Federal Trade Commission has been cracking down nationally on companies accused of signing people up for subscriptions without their consent and making it hard for customers to cancel. Since March 2023, it has also been working on a “Click to Cancel” rule covering the same ground as AB 2863.
In an email, Herrell said it was important for the state to move ahead, regardless of the FTC’s actions. In recent years, opponents of federal rules have filed suit before conservative federal jurists to have the rules thrown out, he said. The state’s measure “ensures that if (more like when) that happens, California consumers have strong protections to ‘click to cancel’ or ‘call to cancel,’” Herrell said.
And even if the agency does adopt a rule that survives challenges, it will set a floor for state protections, not a ceiling, he said, adding that AB 2863 is at least as strong as what the FTC has proposed in its “Click to Cancel” proceeding.