The newly proposed rule from the Federal Trade Commission aims to let consumers easily cancel unwanted subscriptions.

But many businesses argue the move is unnecessary meddling that will harm consumers.

William Bringham joins us now with more

William

That's right Jeff we've all had this experience

you sign up for a subscription or an ongoing membership

but then when you're done with it

undoing that subscription is a complex difficult multi-step process.

The FTC's new rule would require that getting out of those plans would be as easy as it was getting in.

Erin Whitty is Director of Consumer Protection for the Consumer Federation of America and

a supporter of this rule.

Aaron, thank you so much for being here.

They call this new rule click to cancel.

Can you just tell us in practicality, how would it roll out?

So the purpose of this rule is to really align the interests of consumers and businesses.

By making businesses rely on affirmative consumer choice rather than trapping them in a

subscription. The click to cancel part of the rule simply says that if a

consumer is in a subscription it should be as easy to get out of the subscription as it was to get in.

And by making it easier to cancel subscriptions, the Federal Trade Commission is making

sure that consumers are able to get and keep the products that they really want and break up with the ones that they don't.

It also gives businesses a very clear standard for what it means to have a simple cancellation

process.

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