UK Government unveils rules to end subscription traps

another-dave

> Ensure that for contracts covered by the new rules, consumers have a14 day period after a trial or 12 month+ contract auto-renews to cancel and receive a full or proportionate refund. This sounds great, but think a "gold standard" in good UX practice (whether or not needs to be law, up for debate) would be that you're not charged for your subscription until first use, either after the free trial end or renewal. So if my Netflix membership tick over, when I go to watch a new episode then it tells me "your membership is expired; accessing now is accepting renewal at £x/year. Continue?" > Charitable memberships: Certain memberships of charitable, cultural and heritage organisations will be excluded from the new rules given the unique role they have in preserving and opening up access to the nation’s history, landscapes, and cultural collections. Hmm, in my opinion charities are the worst for bad practices here and shouldn't be given a carve out. They should be the last people who need it, too. If I was genuinely happy that my money is going to Cancer Research and they're spending it wisely, why would they be worried about it?

graemep

its not enough. We need things like data portability.

filiphillesland

The charitable carve-out is the most interesting part of this. In practice, charities rely heavily on passive renewals from donors who forgot they signed up years ago. That's not malicious in the same way a dark pattern gym membership is, but the effect on the donor is identical. Hard to justify the exemption on principle even if the motivation is sympathetic.