Rejected petition: Protect consumers from unfair subscription and sneaky renewal practices
Rejected on
1. Introduce legislation to ban automatic renewal of free trials and discounted subscriptions without explicit customer consent.
2. require clear renewal reminders and simple cancellation, and
3. give banks the power to stop recurring subscription payments immediately at a customer’s request.
Millions lose money when free trials or discounts turn into full-price subscriptions.
Many companies make cancellation difficult through obscure emails, third-party platforms or app store settings. Cancelling should be as easy as signing up.
People don’t realise when discounts end until new payments are taken. During the austerity crisis, this adds financial pressure and stress. The law should require clear reminders, simple cancellation and better protection from unwanted recurring payments.
Why was this petition rejected?
We can't publish petitions when the request is something that's already happening or something that has been announced since you started your petition.
We think your petition is covered by Government or Parliament action already. If you'd like something else, you could start a new petition clearly explaining what it is.
The Government has already announced plans to change how reminders are sent and make it easier to cancel subscriptions (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/consumers-to-save-around-400-million-every-year-from-government-crackdown-on-costly-subscription-traps)
We also cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.
There are petitions already open on this topic which you may wish to sign:
Make subscription auto-renewal without clear renewal consent illegal
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/767211Mandate a "One-Click to Cancel" button for all online subscriptions
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/757238We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.