FTC Announces 'Click To Cancel' Rule Making It Easier For Consumers To Cancel Subscriptions, And All Memers' Eyes Turn To Planet Fitness

In rare government-related news that most people appear to approve of, the FTC has announced a "Click to Cancel" rule, which will make it as easy for American consumers to cancel subscriptions as it is to sign up for things.

In a statement, Commission Chair Lina M. Khan said, "Too often, businesses make people jump through endless hoops just to cancel a subscription. The FTC’s rule will end these tricks and traps, saving Americans time and money. Nobody should be stuck paying for a service they no longer want."

As many American consumers know, canceling a subscription is often a task requiring the completion of a Byzantine digital obstacle course. Many companies have tried to make it as difficult as possible to back out of a subscription while still technically offering consumers a way to do so.

This new rule will prohibit sellers from "failing to provide a simple mechanism to cancel the negative option feature and immediately halt charges."

Many online are heralding this as a good and long overdue change that will clearly improve the lives of Americans. Having acknowledged that, many people's eyes turned to the perceived worst offender of making it difficult to get out of a subscription: gym chain Planet Fitness.

Gyms in general make it notoriously difficult to drop a membership, and Planet Fitness has a reputation for being the worst in that regard.

By most accounts, one can usually cancel a Planet Fitness membership by visiting the gym in person and filling out a cancelation form. If for whatever reason that's not possible, consumers have found it extremely difficult to get out of their memberships.

The current alternative to an in-person cancelation requires sending physical mail to Planet Fitness HQ, and the mail needs to reach Planet Fitness by a certain date every month so that you're removed from that month's billing cycle. If you want to cancel online, which seems reasonable in the year of our lord 2024, you need to manually alter your address to California.

This update from the FTC should put a stop to all that, and numerous memers are thrilled and, perhaps sarcastically, fearful for the future of Planet Fitness.

It remains to be seen how gyms will recover when they no longer receive payments from people too anxious to come into gyms to cancel in person.