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NYC is striking back against “junk fees” by implementing the nation’s first municipal Click-to-Cancel rule — making it easier to scrub sneaky subscriptions for everything from gym memberships to streaming services.
The new regulation, city officials say, will save cash-strapped city dwellers a whopping $162.5 million a year.
The consequence for subscription-sellers in violation will be enforced starting October 1 — with offending companies being subject to $525 per evasion.
The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) has released an explainer video further outlining how the rule will work.
The changes were announced at Manhattan’s Asser Levy Recreational Center on July 10, with Mayor Zohran Mamdani, DCWP commissioner Samuel A.A. Levine, Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su, Senator Kristen Gonzalez and former commissioner of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Lina Khan as speakers.
“Right now, companies make it easy to sign up for things and hard to cancel them,” Su said in her opening remarks. “They advertise one price and charge you another.”
When Mayor Mamdani stepped up to speak, he compared the increase in hidden recurring fees and the difficulty New Yorkers often face when trying to cancel them to a line in Adam Sandler’s 2006 comedy “Click.”
“Christopher Walken, in his role as Morty (the Angel of Death) begs us to ‘Consider the leprechaun,’” Mamdani stated. “‘He’s always chasing the pot of gold,’ Walken says. ‘But when he gets there, at the end of the day, it’s just cornflakes.’ Whether it’s an internet provider or a commercial gym, too many in our city have made and developed the bad habit of disguising cornflakes as gold.”
“New Yorkers reckon with (this) as almost every part of the customer experience when they are not told how much something truly costs, and when they get a mess of hidden fees that they never signed up for, cannot cancel, cannot afford,” he continued, emphasizing that the costs from hidden fees by airlines, credit card companies, hotel bookings and streaming services “add up.”
Per Consumer Reports, these sneaky fees cost the average family of four approximately $3,200 every year.
But wait, there’s potentially more — the Mamdani administration also proposed an adjacent act that would require fully transparent, all-in pricing on a slew of different services. A public comment period and public hearing on the additional rule will take place on Aug. 7.
“The Mamdani Administration is shutting the door on the era of fleecing New Yorkers with junk fees and subscription traps,” said Commissioner Levine.
“These two rules will ensure that the price you see is the price you pay—no hidden charges, no endless subscription services and no advantages for businesses that cheat. Requiring companies to compete on price will lower costs for all New Yorkers and level the playing field for honest businesses.”
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