Submitted by Marcin Swiniarski on Saturday 1st November 2025
Published on Tuesday 9th December 2025
Current status: Open
Open until: Tuesday 9th June 2026
Current Signatures: 73
(count is updated approximately hourly)
Require free subscriptions stop after trial & do not take bank details upfront
We would like to ask the government to mandate that all free to try subscriptions must not request payment details upfront and that they should terminate at the end of the free term unless the user makes a conscious decision to convert to a full plan - "act to keep going", not "act to cancel".
It is very common for digital subscriptions (music, video, digital services) to require our payment details upfront despite being advertised as free to try. These types of trial subscriptions are then very often automatically converted to recurring subscriptions after the initial trial under what we call "act to cancel" scheme.
We believe this mechanism is predatory and should be stopped.
If you want to sign this petition (as opposed to merely discuss it), you need to do that on the government's e-Petitions website.
216.73.216.219 Thu, 04 Jun 2026 04:01:09 +0100