Negative option billing is a payment structure which requires that customers decline to receive a good or service

before a bill arrives in order to not be charged for that good or service.

To not be charged for something they didn't necessarily want and definitely didn't ask for.

Probably the best known example of a business predicated on this charging method in the

United States was Columbia House, which started its life as a music mail order service that

promised customers a free record, and later free eight tracks, cassettes, CDs, and ultimately VHS

tapes and DVDs, when they expanded their offerings to include films

rather than just music. You'd sign up to get a free something and sometimes multiple

free somethings, but then as part of that sign up process, you'd be auto-opted in to a so-called

club, which was the terminology they used for a membership program

that committed you to paying full price, plus shipping, for a certain number of CDs, DVDs, or

whatever else, within a certain time frame. And if you didn't buy that many CDs or VHS tapes

within that predefined time frame, you would be auto-charged for the

amount you would have spent on such products as a lump sum at the end of that period.

Variations of this model were used throughout the lifespan of this company, one of which

committed the customer to buying a certain number of products at full price over a certain period of time,

the next few years, for instance, but then would periodically send out notices about a special discount offer

to those who have knowingly or unknowingly signed on to this agreement,

again usually because they were given something cheap

or free up front and because the cost of those free things weren't entirely clear when they opted in.

So they would sign on to this agreement, receive a notice of a discount offer, and if these folks

didn't respond to that notice informing them of that discounted offer, they would

...