New York State Budget Affordability

State Budget Will End Subscription Traps, Making It Easier to Cancel Cable or Streaming Services

The final budget excludes a loophole that would have exempted corporate giants like Spotify and Amazon, after New York Focus reported on the carveout in February.

Sam Mellins · May 7, 2025

The 2025 state budget includes a new law requiring companies to offer easy cancellation methods for subscriptions ranging from cable TV to Spotify. | Photo: Burst / Pexels | Illustration: Leor Stylar

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Have you ever been trapped in a subscription that you wanted to cancel, but couldn’t figure out how?

Maybe the cancellation button on the website was hidden behind endless menus, or you couldn’t get through to a real person on the phone, and just gave up, resigning yourself to the continued monthly fees.

Canceling Subscriptions Could Get Much Easier in New York — If Lawmakers Get Their Way

Sam Mellins

Those days appear to be over for New Yorkers. The 2025 state budget, which the legislature is expected to finalize within days, includes a new law requiring companies to offer easy cancellation methods for
subscriptions ranging from cable TV to Spotify. Critically, the final version of that law, which will take effect in November, removes a sweeping loophole initially proposed by Governor Kathy Hochul that would have exempted some of the country’s largest companies.

In February, New York Focus reported that Hochul’s original proposal to streamline cancellations didn’t cover companies regulated by the Federal Communications Commission — meaning that corporate giants like Amazon, Apple, Comcast, and Verizon would have been off the hook. Consumer advocates warned that this omission would leave New Yorkers no better off when it came to some of the most subscription-hungry companies.

The state Senate’s March budget proposal eliminated that loophole, after New York Focus informed the chamber’s consumer protection committee chair about the exemption and she said she’d look into it. That version won out in negotiations.

“This is a problem that many, many consumers have, but it’s one that can be addressed through meaningful regulation,” said Norman Silber, a consumer law expert at Hofstra University’s law school. “Now, consumers will find that it’s a lot easier to get out from under automatic renewals.”

What the New Law Requires:

1. Companies must give customers a way to cancel their subscriptions that is as simple as the way they signed up.

2. Companies must get consumers’ consent for price hikes or allow them to cancel their subscriptions if they don’t want to pay the higher cost.

3. If companies offer a temporary low price or free trial of a subscription, they must also clearly explain when the price will go up and by how much.

4. Companies must provide a phone or online option to cancel subscriptions, even if the customer signed up in person.

5. Companies are prohibited from obstructing or unreasonably delaying customers’ attempts to cancel their subscriptions.

The new law mirrors a federal policy known as the “click to cancel” rule, which was enacted in the final months of the Biden administration to make it easier for consumers nationwide to cancel unwanted subscriptions. The federal rule is set to take effect later this month, but may be permanently blocked if ongoing legal challenges against it are successful.

Even if click to cancel does take effect, it’s not clear whether the Trump administration will enforce it, so having an additional layer of protection will still be useful to New Yorkers.

Now, if the feds decline to act, the New York attorney general can go after companies that try to create subscription traps, forcing them to pay penalties and change their practices.

“New York is lucky in that you have a really aggressive and effective AG’s office,” said Samuel Levine, who was in charge of the Federal Trade Commission’s consumer protection efforts under former President Joe Biden. “I certainly hope that she looks at the broad range of unlawful subscription traps and takes action.”