How to cancel a subscription: Just-launched NYC rule aims to make it easy now

A New York City rule intended to make it easier for residents to cancel subscriptions like streaming services and gym memberships has gone into effect, the city announced on Thursday.

The "click-to-cancel" rule is the first of its kind for any municipality in the U.S. It covers any business wherever it’s based, as long as its customer is in the city.

The rule requires businesses to provide consumers with a "straightforward, transparent way to cancel a subscription," along with "clear disclosures when consumers purchase, enroll in, or cancel a subscription," according to a news release from Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office.

"No one should need 45 minutes of hold music to stop paying for something they never wanted," Mamdani said in the release. "If a company can take your money with one click, you should be able to get your money back with one click. And now, if they won’t let you cancel, the City is coming for them."

The Manhattan-based Roosevelt Institute has estimated that after the rule's implementation the city’s adult population will save $21.5 million to $162.5 million annually in subscription costs, along with 600,000 hours that would otherwise be spent canceling the services.

The rule, portions of which mirror New York State laws already in effect, requires cancellation to be "as easy" as sign-up. Anyone offering an automatic renewal or continuous service must present "material terms," including the costs that will be charged, the frequency of charges and the deadline by which a consumer must act to stop further charges. Any free gift or trial offer must explain how the price will change.

The rule prohibits practices such as "hanging up on consumers who call to cancel" and, in some cases, offering them discounted offers or warning them about the effects of cancellation. Civil penalties range from $525 to $3,500.

If a Long Islander subscribes to a city service or a city resident subscribes to a Long Island service, and a service fails to offer a one-click cancellation, the subscriber can seek recourse from the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.

That department’s formal announcement of the rule noted it received a "large number of comments from the public expressing support for the rule," including from one person who said they had to cancel a credit card to avoid paying further installments.

Groups representing the motion picture, television, streaming, telecommunications, broadband internet, health and fitness, newspaper and magazine industries expressed concerns, however.

The Biden administration in 2024 enacted a similar rule, but it was struck down in 2025 by a federal appeals court, which concluded the way the administration handled the rulemaking process was procedurally improper.

By Nicholas Spangler

nicholas.spangler@newsday.comspanglernewsday

Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.