The new rules, part of the Biden-era ‘Negative Option Rule’, are designed to make it easier for consumers to cancel subscriptions. Mobile and broadband providers would be barred from auto-renewing contracts without express customer consent and required to offer cancellation options as simple as the sign-up process.
While the rule technically took effect on January 19, the day before President Trump returned to office, enforcement was scheduled to begin in mid-May.
The FTC has now delayed that deadline to July 14, giving companies more time to comply. Upon pushing back enforcement, the agency acknowledged industry concerns about the burden of implementation and signalled its intention to avoid patchy enforcement or potential legal pushback tied to a rushed timeline.
Click-to-Cancel was part of the Biden administration’s attempts to quash so-called “junk fees,” or hidden fees and surcharges.
The FTC finalised the rules last October, though it faced hefty opposition from across the aisle.
Despite passing under a Democratic majority, Republican FTC commissioners Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak voted against the final rule, with the latter decrying it as “another low in our abuse and misuse of the tools Congress has given [the agency”.
Several of the Biden-era rules have already been quashed since Trump took office, with a Trump-appointed Texas District Court judge throwing out a rule capping credit card late fees back in April.
Ferguson, who voted against Click to Cancel, now leads a Republican majority at the FTC as chair.
While he didn’t join Holyoak’s dissent, the agency he leads faces intense lobbying and lawsuits challenging the rule.
Several industry associations have sought to challenge the rule, including the powerful business advocacy group, the US Chamber of Commerce, which argues the rules are arbitrary, capricious, exceed the FTC’s authority, and impose undue burdens on businesses.
While no Trump administration officials have publicly committed to repealing the FTC’s “Click to Cancel” rule, Holyoak’s dissent offered a harsh preview of potential legal headwinds to come.
She accused the then Democratic-led Commission of rushing the rule through ahead of the 2024 election and warned it “will likely not survive legal challenge”,
Since taking office, the Trump administration has already rolled back several Biden-era regulations it sees as overreach, including rules on semiconductor subsidies, DEI policy, and safe AI development.
With a new Republican majority now leading the FTC, including Ferguson as chair, the rule’s future may hinge on how courts respond to industry lawsuits and whether the agency holds the line come July.
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