Court cancels FTC click-to-cancel rule on a technicality

The US was supposed to celebrate the enforcement date for an FTC rule requiring companies to offer simple, clear, one-click subscription cancellations next Monday, but a panel of appeals court judges has decided otherwise.

Writing in a decision [PDF] published yesterday, a unanimous three-judge panel from the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the so-called "click to cancel" rule passed last October. The judges noted the rule drew immediate complaints from businesses and industry associations unhappy with the idea they'd be forced to move cancellation buttons out of the digital labyrinths where they're often hidden. 

The rule, which the Federal Trade Commission passed last year in a 3-2 vote, tackles various tricks that companies use to make it harder to unsubscribe from services, like dark patterns, misrepresentations of the cancellation process, passively transitioning trial accounts to paid subscriptions without notification, and the like.

Such a measure seems easy ...