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[–] 26 points 2 years ago (2 children)

German consumer protection FTW

The Fair Consumer Contracts Act will in future introduce a mandatory 2-step termination process […]. Wherever the consumer can conclude a subscription contract against payment, the provider should also give the consumer the opportunity to terminate at the same point. […A] cancellation button should be included on such registration pages for memberships at the first stage (with the wording “Cancel contracts here”). This “first” cancellation button should then lead to a confirmation page on the second level, where the respective user is identified and the consumer can effectively send the cancellation (i.e. with the wording “Cancel now”).

The law (German): https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bgb/__312k.html

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Pretty sure this law applies to the whole EU though

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

    i really don't think so. i hope it will be so in the future

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago*

    I was pretty sure that there is something and a lot of searching finally led me to the "Unfair Commercial Practices Directive" from 2005. There also is a guidance to that directive from 2021 that is found here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52021XC1229(05)

    Section 4.2.7 (dark patterns) is what is interesting for this topic. In the paragraph at the end of the section it includes the sentence:

    unsubscribing from a service should be as easy as subscribing to the service

    So it appears that the EU intended it that way but because it's only a directive, implementation differs by country. I also didn't see anything about being able to cancel in the same way you subscribed(e.g. that they can't force you to call or send a letter if you subscribed online), but afaik german law has a ruling like this.

    Edit: I took so long to write this and find the links that I forgot the german law was the reason for the comment I answered...

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Under the GDPR, it must be “as easy to withdraw as to give consent”. You must make it very easy for people to unsubscribe: one or two clicks at most

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