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Canceling subscriptions was about to get easier, but a federal court blocked the FTC rule

Canceling subscriptions was about to get easier, but a federal court blocked the FTC rule

Fast Company09-07-2025
A 'click-to-cancel' rule, which would have required businesses to make it easy for consumers to cancel unwanted subscriptions and memberships, has been blocked by a federal appeals court just days before it was set to go into effect.
The Federal Trade Commission's proposed changes, adopted in October, required businesses to obtain a customer's consent before charging for memberships, auto-renewals, and programs linked to free trial offers.
The FTC said at the time that businesses must also disclose when free trials or other promotional offers will end and let customers cancel recurring subscriptions as easily as they started them.
The administration of President Joe Biden included the FTC's proposal as part of its 'Time is Money' initiative, a governmentwide initiative that was announced last year with the aim of cracking down on consumer-related hassles.
The FTC rule was set to go into effect on Monday, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit said this week that the FTC made a procedural error by failing to come up with a preliminary regulatory analysis, which is required for rules whose annual impact on the U.S. economy is more than $100 million.
The FTC claimed that it did not have to come up with a preliminary regulatory analysis because it initially determined that the rule's impact on the national economy would be less than $100 million. An administrative law judge decided that the economic impact would be more than the $100 million threshold.
The court decided to vacate the rule.
'While we certainly do not endorse the use of unfair and deceptive practices in negative option marketing, the procedural deficiencies of the Commission's rulemaking process are fatal here,' the court wrote.
The FTC declined to comment on Wednesday.
The agency is currently moving forward with its preparations for a trial involving Amazon's Prime program. The trial stems from a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit that accused Amazon of enrolling consumers in its Prime program without their consent and making it difficult for them to cancel their subscriptions.
The trial is expected to take place next year.
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Donald Trump's New Order Hits College Football 'Salaries'
Donald Trump's New Order Hits College Football 'Salaries'

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  • Newsweek

Donald Trump's New Order Hits College Football 'Salaries'

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Trump targets disaster mitigation funds, raising risks in future crises
Trump targets disaster mitigation funds, raising risks in future crises

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Trump targets disaster mitigation funds, raising risks in future crises

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Crypto lobbyists mine for influence under Trump 2.0
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The Hill

time2 hours ago

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Crypto lobbyists mine for influence under Trump 2.0

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Kucoin, a cryptocurrency exchange based in the Seychelles, spent the most on lobbying of any of the new companies, doling out $1 million in the second quarter on issues 'related to crypto legislation and regulations' — more than industry giants like Coinbase ($970,000), ($430,000) and the Blockchain Association ($490,000), which represents more than 100 crypto companies. But Kucoin isn't even allowed to operate in the U.S. market for at least the next two years. In January, the exchange pleaded guilty for failing to properly vet its users in what the Justice Department said was a violation of federal anti-money laundering regulations. Kucoin also agreed to pay a fine of $300 million. Still, the broader industry's enthusiasm coincides with a historically crypto-friendly White House — a marked change from the often -wary Biden administration. 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There's also cryptocurrency hosted on the framework, including $TRUMP and $MELANIA, so-called meme coins owned by the president's family. Some crypto firms are still focused on currency issues; Bitdeer Technologies, which operates computing facilities that mine Bitcoin, spent $250,000. But many of the companies making their voices heard in Washington want to use cryptocurrencies, or blockchain, their underlying technology, for a host of other financial products and technologies. Polymarket, filing under the name Blockratize, is new to lobbying this year and spent $90,000 last quarter. The company allows users to make bets using cryptocurrency on basically any event: the 2028 presidential election, whether President Trump will pardon Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, or even the price of other cryptocurrencies in the near future. Gala Games, which paid out $50,000 in lobbying, helped sponsor the White House's annual Easter Egg Roll — a partnership that included their development of an online Easter egg hunt where users could collect NFT eggs. The company hosts online games that pay out crypto tokens as rewards. After the successful passage of the GENIUS Act, crypto companies are now hoping that the Senate will next advance the CLARITY Act, which would stake out a blueprint for how federal regulatory agencies will oversee crypto firms. A bill banning the Federal Reserve from issuing a cryptocurrency, seen as a competitor to stablecoins, has also attracted support from the sector. But questions linger about the future of the famously volatile industry, and Whitehouse-Levine said he is worried about another sea change after the 'extreme whiplash' between presidential administrations. 'The pendulum, you know, I think was at one extreme and is now swung in the opposite direction,' he said. 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