At the end of my post on the FTC rule requiring making it easy to unsubscribe to services, I wondered what the response would be from those companies addicted to such abusive practices. We didn’t have to wait long.
A whole gaggle of abusers rushed into court crying that they can’t possibly survive without the ability to abuse their customers in this manner. And anyway, it’s for the customers’ own good.
Their arguments are laughable and, except for one, are unlikely to convince the courts. Their one strong card is a recent Supreme Court decision limiting the ability of federal agencies to interpret laws by making regulations. The abusers are, of course, claiming that the FTC has no authority to make such a rule. The FTC begs to differ. They cite Section 18 of the FTC act that specifically allows them to make rules prohibiting unfair practices.
It will be interesting to see how the courts rule. Given what’s at stake, we can expect that the decision will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court. The companies using this tactic obviously believe that their products aren’t good enough to stand on their own so they need to resort to abusive practices to keep their customers in line.
Regardless of what the courts decide, we can help end this pernicious practice by refusing to do business with the companies that indulge in it. As a trivial example, I refuse to sign up for the New York Times digital service because the NYT makes use of these tactics. All of you can do the same: just refuse to do business with them.