FTC Click-to-Cancel Rules to Take Effect Jan. 14, 2025

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20, 2024 – New federal rules designed to make it easier to cancel broadband service are set to take effect early in 2025, though compliance will not be required for a few months. The rules have been challenged in court by a trade group for broadband Internet Service Providers.

Federal Trade Commission click-to-cancel rules will take effect Jan. 14, 2025 but compliance with the rules will not be required until May 14, 2025, according to an FTC announcement.

The rules, adopted by the FTC under Chair Lina Khan last month, are designed to allow consumers to cancel service with a single mouse click. The rules target negative option contracts that continue periodic charges unless the customer has canceled.

The new rules have faced strong pushback from trade groups concerned the rules were not the right approach.

“[The rules are] arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion,” NCTA – The Internet and Television Association said in a challenge to the rules in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

NCTA, based in Washington, D.C. with Comcast and Charter Communications as members, was joined in opposing the rules by the Dallas-based Electronic Security Association and the Interactive Advertising Bureau, headquartered in New York, N.Y. They claimed the rules would affect more than 1 billion paid subscriptions in the U.S.

In the past, NCTA has raised concerns that if consumers click to cancel one feature in a discounted communications bundle, they might actually see their bills go up for the services they decided to keep.