How to spot it
- You joined on a phone in ten seconds and the cancel page asks you to call during business hours.
- Cancelling is not in settings. It is in help, then contact, then a chat queue.
- You are offered a discount, a pause, and a survey before you are offered the actual button.
- The confirm button says something like "keep my benefits" and the leave button is a grey link.
- The word cancel does not appear anywhere, and the site search does not find it.
Why it works on you
Every extra step is a chance for you to give up, and the people designing the flow can measure exactly how many do. Friction is cheap to add and it converts reliably, which is why it accumulates. It also exploits the moment: you cancel when you are already irritated, and a maze turns irritation into postponement, and postponement into another month of billing.
What to do
- Search the site for the word cancel before you subscribe, not after.
- Cancel from a desktop browser. Mobile flows are more often the truncated ones.
- If you are put in a retention queue, say no once and repeat it. There is no obligation to explain.
- Keep the confirmation. A cancellation with no written record is a cancellation you may have to argue about.
- If you are billed after cancelling, dispute the charge with your bank and say the word unauthorised.
Where the law stands
The rule here changed recently, so be careful with older advice. The United States Federal Trade Commission finalised a click-to-cancel rule in 2024 requiring cancellation to be as easy as signup, but the Eighth Circuit vacated it on 8 July 2025 on procedural grounds, days before enforcement. It is not in force. Cancellation is still governed by the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act, by Section 5 of the FTC Act, and by state automatic renewal laws, several of which impose their own symmetry requirements. The FTC began a fresh rulemaking in January 2026. In the European Union, Article 25 of the Digital Services Act prohibits making a choice harder to take than its opposite.
This is a description of published regulation, not legal advice, and rules in this area have changed more than once. The sources below are the primary ones.