The rule revives a proposed FTC protection that was abandoned last year.
If you live in New York, canceling subscriptions should get a lot easier starting October 1st. New York City Mayor Mamdani announced a new “Click to Cancel” rule, enforced by the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, that requires companies to provide “simple and straightforward subscription cancellation.” As the name suggests, the rule prohibits companies from letting you quickly click a few boxes to sign up online, while forcing you to navigate a byzantine web of phone calls and carrier pigeons to unsubscribe. In addition to delivering on campaign promises, the new rule also restores one of the protections offered by the Federal Trade Commission under former FTC Chair Lina Khan.
New York City’s new protection applies to “automatic renewal and ongoing service subscriptions,” according to the mayor’s announcement, and requires companies to clearly disclose their subscription terms to customers. Additionally, the rule also states that companies cannot ask you to pay to return an item that they gave you for free as part of a subscription.
Businesses that violate the rule will be subject to “consumer restitution” and penalties that start at $525 per violation. The rule applies specifically to people living in New York, but the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection notes that it also overlaps with New York state laws that govern how businesses accept cancellation notice and what they are required to offer customers with a subscription that automatically renews.
The Click-to-Cancel rule is associated with a proposed rule on unwanted charges that New York will open for public comment on August 7. The Junk Fees Rule attempts to preempt hidden and mandatory fees by requiring companies to announce the full price of their products up front. Mamdani campaigned on eliminating corporate exploitation, but fighting unwanted fees was also one of Khan’s priorities as FTC chairman. Luckily, Lina Khan was one of Mamdani’s transition co-chairs.
The FTC’s plans to implement a nationwide “click to undo” rule collapsed in July 2025, after the commission was overhauled by President Donald Trump and judges on the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals ruled to overturn the rule. For now, click-to-undo protections remain in states including Utah, Idaho, California, Massachusetts, Georgia, Minnesota, Colorado, Illinois and Arkansas.
