FTC Click-to-Cancel Rule and Dark Patterns: What Applies Now

Four checks for a subscription offer

What the rule is, and where it stands

The click-to-cancel rule is the FTC's 2024 amendment to its Negative Option Rule, titled the Rule Concerning Recurring Subscriptions and Other Negative Option Programs (16 CFR Part 425). It was published in the Federal Register on November 15, 2024. On July 8, 2025, the Eighth Circuit vacated the amended rule in Custom Communications, Inc. v. FTC, holding that the FTC skipped a required preliminary regulatory analysis. The 2024 amendments are therefore not in force.

What still applies is the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act (ROSCA, 15 U.S.C. 8401 to 8405). It requires clear disclosure of terms, express informed consent and a simple way to stop recurring charges, and the FTC enforces it. State automatic-renewal laws also apply, including California's Business and Professions Code section 17600 and following, New York's General Business Law section 527-a and the Illinois Automatic Contract Renewal Act.

The sections below describe the amended rule's standards. Treat them as the benchmark that ROSCA enforcement and state laws push toward, and check the FTC's site for any new rulemaking.

Make the charge visible before the click

Before a buyer commits, the payment path should state that charges continue unless the buyer acts, alongside the amount or calculation, billing frequency, first-charge timing, and any cancellation deadline. A notice elsewhere, or terms shown only after the control, cannot do this job.

The negative-option feature includes continuity plans and free-to-pay trials. Consent must be express and informed, not inferred from inaction or a preselected box. Terms need clear, conspicuous placement beside the action that starts billing, because a reasonable buyer must be able to notice the commitment before agreeing.

A separate hyperlink, low-contrast type, or preselected control cannot substitute for an explanation beside the payment action. If the fee or renewal date changes, disclosure is due again. These interface details distinguish an offer that communicates its terms from one that technically contains words but obscures the practical effect of enrollment.

Match the exit to the way in

The vacated rule would have required an online cancellation route whenever enrollment happened online, and ROSCA's simple-mechanism requirement and several state laws point the same way: leaving should be no harder than joining. Requiring a phone call as the sole exit fails that test; the reviewer needs to compare the full journey, not just find cancellation wording.

Dark patterns can turn friction into retention: consent boxes selected in advance, exits buried among menus, and online enrollment followed by phone-only cancellation make the buyer work to stop charges.

Federal and state responsibilities overlap, but they do not merge into one test. The FTC acts under the FTC Act and ROSCA; state attorneys general enforce state automatic-renewal laws. A broader account of Washington's agency roles provides context, while covered sellers still have to design for the FTC baseline.

Other federal agencies address related conduct in specific fields. The CFPB has pursued subscription and junk-fee practices in financial products; the FCC applies rules to phone and text marketing.

Treat geography as an extra layer

State rules can add conditions to the federal baseline. California requires notice before a free trial ends, online cancellation, and no subscription charge after cancellation; New York and Illinois also impose renewal notice and consent requirements. Read the statute of each state where you sell, because local requirements extend the federal baseline.

A seller operating across jurisdictions may reduce exposure by designing for its strictest applicable standard: prominent terms, affirmative agreement, and an online exit. Rules can change as legislatures consider new automatic-renewal measures, so sellers still need to check the places where they offer subscriptions rather than treating one template as universal.

Influencer promotions create a separate disclosure concern. Sellers using them should consult FTC endorsement guidance, but a marketing notice does not replace recurring-charge terms or agreement to billing. Keep promotional disclosures distinct from checkout information, so audiences do not mistake an endorsement label for the buyer's consent or instructions for ending service.

Use the record to reconstruct the journey

Records make a transaction reviewable. Keep the exact disclosure, proof of consent, cancellation logs, timestamped checkout captures, and saved versions of pages after design changes. The aim is to reconstruct what appeared, what action the buyer took, and what happened when the buyer sought to leave.

Retention depends on state law and product type. A cautious approach is to preserve relevant evidence throughout the subscription and for the applicable state limitation period. If consent evidence is missing, a seller may be treated as if consent never happened, so a dependable enrollment record matters as much as the visible checkout.

The FTC may seek civil penalties, consumer redress, and court orders requiring changes to cancellation processes; state penalties and private consumer-protection suits are also possible. The amended rule appeared in the Federal Register on November 15, 2024, and the Eighth Circuit vacated it in July 2025, as explained above.

Separately, FTC Act civil penalties are about $53,000 per violation, subject to annual inflation adjustments. The best-known dark-pattern case is FTC v. Amazon. The agency sued in 2023, alleging that Prime enrollment happened without consent and that cancellation was deliberately hard, and in September 2025 Amazon agreed to a $2.5 billion settlement combining a civil penalty and customer refunds. The FTC's 2021 enforcement policy statement on negative option marketing had already named dark patterns as a target.

ROSCA reaches sellers regardless of size, although enforcement attention often follows scale and complaint volume. Consent calls for an affirmative act after disclosure of material terms that clearly signals agreement to recurring charges; hidden wording or a prechecked box does not suffice. Retained evidence should show how the enrollment met that standard.