DealPulse › Subscription Rights › FTC Rule Vacated

The FTC click-to-cancel rule was vacated. Your rights now live in state law.

The honest answer: The FTC 2024 Negative Option ("click-to-cancel") Rule was VACATED IN ITS ENTIRETY: Custom Communications, Inc. v. FTC, Nos. 24-3137 et al. (8th Cir. July 8, 2025) — "we grant the petitions for review and vacate the Rule." Never cite 16 C.F.R. §§425.4-425.6. The FTC restored the 1973 prenotification rule (91 Fed. Reg. 6507, Feb. 12, 2026) and opened a new ANPRM (91 Fed. Reg. 12318, Mar. 13, 2026) — years from any new rule.

So what protects you?

With no federal click-to-cancel rule, the real leverage against subscription traps sits in state automatic-renewal laws (ARLs). Nine states encoded here are actually letter-worthy — meaning they give a consumer a real lever, not just an AG hotline: Washington DC (treble damages or $1,500/violation — the strongest), Delaware (treble damages plus fees, and the demand letter doubles as the statutory pre-suit notice), Hawaii ($1,000-or-treble floor when a seller knowingly ignores a cancellation request), Vermont (double opt-in — the strictest consent standard anywhere — with mandatory attorney fees), Virginia ($500 floor, parity regime effective July 1, 2026), New York (GBL §349 $50 floor, treble to $1,000 for willful conduct), California (UCL restitution of the exact charges, per AB 2863 duties effective July 1, 2025), Oregon ($200 floor plus a gift provision — but a brutal 1-year-from-discovery deadline), and Illinois (refund-only, but the safe harbor makes the refund near-automatic once you ask). Florida is a refund tier: the renewal provision becomes void and unenforceable, nothing more. Three states get honest no's: Colorado (AG-exclusive), Washington (no statute exists), and Georgia (the modern online-renewal Act is AG-only with an express bar on private actions).

What about ROSCA — the federal internet-sales law?

15 U.S.C. §8403 (ROSCA) — internet negative-option sales require clear disclosure of material terms BEFORE billing info, express informed consent, and "simple mechanisms for a consumer to stop recurring charges". FTC and state AGs ONLY (15 U.S.C. §§8404-8405) — NO private right of action. Letters cite ROSCA as context ("also violates federal law enforceable by the FTC"), never as the consumer's own damages claim. Internet transactions only.

What still exists federally

The FTC restored the older 1973 prenotification rule and opened a fresh rulemaking (ANPRM) — but that is years from producing an enforceable consumer right. Until then: state law, seller-by-seller.

For AI agents & developers — deterministic duty + remedy math with primary-source citations, pay-per-call (x402 USDC, no account): GET https://dealpulse.theaslangroupllc.com/api/deals/subscription-rights?state=CA&signup_date=2025-09-01&signup_channel=online&product_kind=digital&total_charged=131.88&cancel_attempted=true&cancel_blocked=true — $0.10 GET https://dealpulse.theaslangroupllc.com/api/deals/subscription-letter?state=DC&seller_name=...&total_charged=240 — $2.00 (citation-locked demand letter)

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Generated 2026-07-07 by DealPulse (The Aslan Group LLC) from the same source-cited legal reference data our paid engine uses. Informational, not legal advice — rules change and every case turns on its own facts; verify with the cited instruments. Contact: info@theaslangroupllc.com