Canceling A Subscription Can Be A Pain — New York City's New Law Could Change That

Almost everyone has fallen into the trap of signing up for a subscription with a streaming service or fitness app, only to stop and realize months later that they're still paying for it. Subscription-based businesses thrive on this recurring revenue, so they're incentivized to make it super easy to set up a new subscription. Unfortunately, pulling the plug on that same service isn't always so easy — in fact, the process tends to get messy fast. These companies often hide their cancellation button behind pages and pages of intentionally confusing menus, or even force you to call in during specific hours to effectively beg for cancellation. This frustrating reality has cost U.S. consumers thousands of dollars a year in unwanted charges.

Relief seemed imminent in October 2024 as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) finalized a national "click to cancel" rule that would end these deceptive practices. The initiative promised to force businesses to provide a cancellation method as simple as the sign-up process. However, a federal appeals court struck down the regulation in July 2025, right before it took effect, citing procedural issues. The death of this helpful rule was a huge blow to consumer rights. Any federal-level action on this is likely years away. But that delay didn't stop New York City from taking the matter into its own hands.

New York City has officially stepped up to fill this regulatory void for its citizens, and is the first municipality in the country to enact its own click-to-cancel legislation. The city's new law started out as an executive order issued by Mayor Zohran Mamdani on January 5, 2026, and the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection began enforcing it on October 1, 2026, targeting businesses that intentionally make it difficult to end a subscription. Under the mandate, any company offering a subscription to residents must make ending that subscription just as straightforward as starting it. So even for subscription services actually worth the money, if a user signs up online in two clicks, the cancellation process must also be available online with the same minimal effort.

The law goes a step further: Even if a customer signs up for a service in person, businesses now have to have an online cancellation option. Plus, businesses that do anything to delay the process or make it tough face stiff financial penalties for every violation, starting at $525. Though this specific law only protects residents within the five boroughs, its impact will hopefully ripple across the United States. It's incredibly important, as it proves that lawmakers can successfully challenge dark patterns and predatory billing to protect their fellow citizens.

We saw a similar ripple effect with the European Union's GDPR privacy rules, affecting changes to cookie pop-up data gathering starting in 2018. Instead of building different websites for different regions, more and more countries are adopting these strict data protections. Likewise, New York City's law is poised to force a similar nationwide upgrade, as major platforms likely won't be thrilled about having to build out an entirely separate billing infrastructure just for one municipality.