This could be extremely easily solved with legislation. Just have a law that says you must be able to cancel a subscription exactly as easily as how you signed up for it.
This could be extremely easily solved with legislation. Just have a law that says you must be able to cancel a subscription exactly as easily as how you signed up for it.
I don't know about other places, but I'm pretty sure there are laws to such an effect (or similar) in the EU.
Laws don't do much if they are not enforced. As is the case with this law. Regulations on anti-consumer behavior are very poorly enforced, and there's often in practice no penalty for violating them.
> and there's often in practice no penalty for violating them.
This is the crux of the matter. The laws are too weak. If the law said that that in addition to a refund there was a mandatory $100 compensatory payment due for every payment taken improperly (eg. every payment taken while unsubscription using the same method didn't work) then you'd have a few activist consumers waiting five years, recording the evidence and then demanding $6000. The problem would disappear overnight.
I wouldn't be so sure. E.g. EU mandated substantial compensations for delayed or cancelled flights. In practice the airlines typically just refuse to pay. You can contact an ombudsman that can sternly suggest that they pay, but not actually make them pay.
Of course you can take it to a court, wasting countless hours of time and risking tens of thousands in legal fees if you lose.
> wasting countless hours of time and risking tens of thousands in legal fees if you lose
That's a huge exaggeration. For example in the UK (not in the EU now I know, but roughly the same and I know the system better) you're looking at risking under £200. The loser will pay the fees. If you're certain that you're owed compensation under the law then there's little risk to take.
Source: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/small-claims-court...
Doesn't California already have this? I've heard the trick is to VPN to California and magically the Cancel button exists on the website now. Never tried it though, I'm also mostly allergic to subscriptions.
You understand most SaaS companies are global, right? This isn't a problem only impacting 5% of the world.
Same comment, different conclusion. Being international, it will be difficult to enforce those laws when the business and client are in different countries. Even if different countries implement similar laws, they will invariably be just that: similar. Altruistic small businesses will have difficulty with compliance because it is an additional burden they must handle. Then there is malicious compliance. Too many businesses are willing to distort the intent of the law if they can find some sort of loophole.
How is it difficult for an altruistic small business to offer a prominent "end subscription" button? It's only hard to cancel most things because businesses purposely make it difficult.
When there are no laws regarding it, it is quite simple: you add the prominent end subscription button. When you are dealing with the laws of one jurisdiction, you (or your lawyer) review the law to ensure you meet the definition of prominent, are using the correct language, etc.. Multiple laws in multiple jurisdictions: not only is it more time consuming to ensure compliance, you better hope the laws don't conflict (otherwise the complexity of the solution is going to climb rapidly).
I see this same argument presented by grandparent trotted out when people argue against including tax and fees in the price in the States. Australia and NL manage this just fine, and somehow multinationals and small businesses manage to conduct business that follow these regulations in these countries while still dealing with a patchwork of country and region specific enforcement regulations. And the example I gave is more difficult than adding a cancel subscription button.
And? Every country can pass its own legislation, which may also (but is not required to) be in the form of a joint agreement to harmonise laws to make business requirements simpler.
It doesn't matter to any single subscriber if two different countries happen to be in sync or not.