New York City now requires companies to make canceling a subscription as easy as signing up for one.
The Click to Cancel rule, which took effect on October 1, covers automatic-renewal and continuous-service subscriptions (including those started online or via app), and the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection is enforcing it.
“No one should need 45 minutes of hold music to stop paying for something they never wanted,” said Mayor Mamdani in a statement announcing the new rule. “New Yorkers work too hard for their money to have it drained by a subscription they can’t cancel. If a company can take your money with one click, you should be able to get your money back with one click. And now, if they won’t let you cancel, the City is coming for them,” Mamdani added.
What the new rule bans
Several common tactics are now banned as a result, including hanging up on customers who call to cancel or giving out false information about how to do it. Offering a discount to talk someone out of leaving is restricted too, which means that platforms can no longer use retention offers in a way that obstructs or unreasonably delays cancellation.
Brands breaking any of these rules may face fines ranging from $525 to $3,500, depending on how many times they violate it.
Plenty of New Yorkers are ready for the change. Beyond the high volume of public support submitted to the city during the rule’s development, surveys show that approximately 60% of consumers currently pay for at least one unused subscription, often because the cancellation process is intentionally designed to be a ‘Kafka-esque’ maze.
National numbers point the same way. A 2024 Data for Progress poll found more than 80% of respondents supported a Click to Cancel law, and a Self Financial survey this year found 70% of people had forgotten to cancel a free trial and ended up paying for a subscription.
While a federal “Click to Cancel” rule was proposed by the FTC to address these issues, it was vacated by a court in 2025, leaving a regulatory gap that New York City’s rule is now filling locally.
Complaints can be filed through the Click to Cancel page on NYC.gov.
While New York State has a similar Automatic Renewal Law (GBL § 527-a), this new municipal rule provides the city with distinct enforcement authority, specifically requiring that companies provide an online cancellation path for subscriptions started online.
Sources: NYC Mayor’s Office, Roosevelt Institute, Data For Progress, Self., DCWP News, ABC7