United States of America: Introduced Consumer OPT-IN Act (HR 2460)

On 3 April 2023, an “Act to provide for automatic renewal protections, and for other purposes” (Consumer OPT-IN Act) was introduced in the US House of Representatives. The Act aims to protect consumers from online free trial scams and hard-to-cancel recurring-payment programs by requiring companies to obtain express informed consent from consumers before converting free trials into automatically renewing contracts. Furthermore, the Act would require companies to notify consumers of the first automatic renewal, obtain express informed consent before automatically renewing long-term and short-term contracts, and obtain express informed consent to continue billing when a consumer is not using their products or service for six months. Finally, the Act would be enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, which would be given rulemaking authority over negative option contracts, automatic renewals and dark patterns.