The Federal Trade Committee announced yesterday that a $ 2.5 billion bomb was settled in a lawsuit with Amazon regarding what FTC has claimed unfair practices related to Amazon’s main subscription product; This settlement took place less than a week in a trial that was expected to last for at least a month. The settlement includes $ 1.5 billion from the amounts recovered to about 35 million customers, as well as an unprecedented civil penalty. Looking at some other procedures on the list now, along with what happened in the few days of the Amazon experience and arrangement of the parties stipulated, some principles seem clear.
Enforcement happens
Despite the decision of the eighth district last July, when he evacuated the clicking base to the long -awaited federal committee less than a week before its actual date, FTC continues to rely on section 5 of the FTC law in general as well as the law of shopping online (Rosca) to challenge non -calm socialist practices; In fact, this case was filed against Amazon in June 2023, long before using the clicking base as a weapon by the committee. We have seen a 7.5 mm recent settlement with Chegg, the issues against Uber One and La Fitness, the ongoing issue against Adobe, and this issue that has now been expanded against Amazon. And not just FTC that monitors possible potential subscription programs; The state levels are busy at the same extent, as it is clear from the settlement of the Automatic Renewal Squad in California of $ 7.5 million with hellofresh, and we witnessed a set of collective lawsuits that were submitted in California that claim that failures in compliance with the automatic renewal law in California constitute violations of the laws of legal consumer, and the unavailable competition law , And the unavailable advertising law.
Do you have receipts?
When the trial began in a lawsuit in Amazon last Monday, FTC began to highlight a group of “smoking rifles” obtained during the discovery that did not preach well to defend the Amazon from the case, and the FTC lawyers began to use these evidence to make it penetrated to subscribe to cancel the difference in cancellation of the difference in subscribing to the subscription to subscribe to that. they.
Many companies that work in this field are likely to have documents, email messages and other detected records – including a potential staff certificate – which can be weapons in the same way. These materials will reflect the business and decision -making process, and whenever it seems that any of them proves awareness of a possible confusion by consumers, but a decision from working not to take corrective measures, you can cook for trial. Of course, this does not mean that you should pledge to hide or destroy any of these materials, but rather you should look closely at what your records show that your practices were and change the path if necessary.
Compliance should not be this difficulty
It seems that there is a common topic in investigations and lawsuits that we see are companies – whether it is intentionally or because of the lack of understanding of legal requirements – the structure of subscription programs in Autorenewal either near or through a line that is fair and acceptable for consumers. When you looked at the crystallization when I wrote this article last June, the basic basic characteristics that should be reflected in your automatic subscription program remains despite the continued development of the legal and organizational scene:
Clear and clear disclosure: Be obvious when describing the program in advance until customers realize that they participate in repeated fees automatically; Do this before the customer agrees to the transaction.
Positive approval: Get the customer’s positive approval of this framework – separately from everything else – as well as to actual amounts and frequent fees before collecting their bills information or imposing fees on them.
Simple cancel: Be clear on how to cancel customers and make it simple and direct, simulating the recording method.
Of course, there are other elements that must be examined for compliance, but the goal of these three will have a long way towards keeping customers and organizers happy and keeping the collective workbar from your hair.
What does everything mean?
Be careful about developing a false feeling of safety because you were doing an automatic subscription program for some time, but it has not been prosecuted. Although it might be easy to believe that your program should be compatible or certainly you have faced a challenge now, or instead of believing that adult players are the ones who are being prosecuted only, are not very confident in any of these assumptions. If your program is not compatible, this may be a matter of time until it lands on a person’s radar to challenge it.
I will repeat what I said in an article last July: If you have updated your subscription form in anticipation of the clicking base on the impression, then your best is to complete the play; Doing this will not only help you to nullify the future if the rule is revived, but will also help you comply with the laws of the state that is currently in the books.
We have helped countless customers in Nelson Molins to move in this water, and we are pleased to answer any questions you may have.
*Boy: I found the star buried at the bottom of this article. When I say in the title that the base of clicking to the impure may be dead “mostly”, I will pay your attention to a specific judgment in the order stipulated with Amazon. After identifying all the things that Amazon should do to comply with the arrangement, FTC included a complete section entitled “VI. A negative option base”, which says:
It is also important that, to the extent that the committee issues a rule or a modified regulation that governs options or negative contributions, the requirements of this rule (as long as it remains applicable, binding, and in fact) will replace the requirements from the first to the fifth section of this request.
This opens the door for a committee that may try to revive the base of click on the opposite at some point-we will have to wait and see.