Click-to-cancel subscriptions rule being proposed by NYC Mayor Mamdani

Streaming services, publishers, gyms and other subscription-based companies would need to make canceling as easy as clicking, under a rule to be proposed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration.

The rule — which would cover any business, wherever it’s based, as long as its customer is in the city — restricts so-called subscription traps, automatic renewals and continuous service, which are notorious for being easy to sign up for and purposefully hard to cancel.

"Subscription traps are just another way that big corporations extract hard-earned money from working people. In our city, we’re drawing a clear line: if you can sign up with a click, you must be able to cancel with one," Mamdani said in a news release.

Violating the rule would require restitution to the customer, as well as civil penalties starting at $525.

The authority to enforce what is known in consumer-protection circles as click-to-cancel extends anywhere if the practice is directed at city consumers, according to Milo Gringlas, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, which would enforce the rule.

"If you advertise to NYers, you can’t deceive them or subject them to unjustifiably harsh terms," he wrote Friday in a text message.

The administration says the city would be the first municipality in the nation to enact a click-to-cancel rule.

The rule would apply under certain circumstances beyond the city. For example, if a Long Islander subscribes to a city service, or a city resident subscribes to a Long Island service, and a service fails to offer a one-click cancellation, the subscriber can seek recourse from the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. 

Since taking office, Mamdani has waged a crusade against so-called junk fees and other hidden charges, and the effects of the crusade are expected to trickle out to Long Island.

In January, Mamdani announced that the city would enact a rule targeting bait-and-switch tactics, requiring that the grand total of a hotel stay be disclosed upfront, and prohibiting booking sites and hoteliers from "sneakily" adding charges later on, such as resort fees, destination fees and other hospitality service charges.

The next month, the department blitzed health clubs and gyms in the city with "compliance" warnings against hard-to-cancel memberships and illegally deceptive advertising.

Mamdani’s efforts are being led by Sam Levine, a consumer-protection official he hired who had done similar work for the Biden administration.

Mamdani signed an executive order on Wednesday commencing a 30-day comment period on the click-to-cancel rule, culminating in the publication of a final rule. During the comment period, Gringlas said, the department will iron out particulars of the rule, which would take effect shortly thereafter.

The Biden administration in 2024 enacted a similar rule, but it was struck down last year by a federal appeals court, which concluded that the way the administration handled the rulemaking process was procedurally improper, according to Preetha Chakrabarti, a partner in New York at the firm Crowell & Moring, who advises companies on legal issues related to online commerce.

Among the opponents of the bill was the U.S.Chamber of Commerce, which said the rule would confuse customers and needlessly burden businesses, as well as "deter many companies from offering popular programs and promotions," according to a letter the chamber sent to Congress last year.

The Trump administration earlier this year announced it would begin to propose rules governing click to cancel, Chakrabarti said.

New York State law already requires easy cancellation methods, such as by click, available to the customer "at any time"; the Mamdani administration rule, if enacted, would give the city jurisdiction to enforce click-to-cancel, Gringlas said. 

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.