Tag Archives: Click to Cancel

The Accelerating Rate of Deregulation

We’re less than eight months into the new administration, and when considering that short amount of time, there has been an unprecedented amount of deregulation coming out of the federal government related to broadband and telecom issues. Regulatory changes aren’t just coming from the FCC, but also from the White House, NTIA, Congress, and other agencies like the FTC.

The trend to deregulate under a Republican administration is not a surprise. For example, we heard a lot of deregulation rhetoric when FCC Chairman Ajit Pai took over the FCC. His FCC tackled deregulation, but at a much slower pace than the current administration. Brendan Carr hit the ground running in this new administration when he was named as Chairman soon after the inauguration.

Following is a list I made of deregulatory changes I can recall that have happened this year, and I’m sure I’ve missed a few.

  • Chairman Carr came in with the intentions of killing Title II regulation of broadband and net neutrality, but was spared the effort when, in early January, the U.S Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit struck down the regulations that had been adopted by the previous FCC.
  • The FCC’s signature deregulatory thrust has been labeled as Delete, Delete, Delete, which is a streamlined way to eliminate obsolete regulations. In practice, it appears that the FCC has decided to take shortcuts and has shortened the timeline or totally eliminated the ability for public comments before regulations are eliminated.
  • The FCC canceled rules that allowed the Universal Fund to pay for WiFi on school buses. The FCC is currently killing rules that would allow the USF to fund hotspots for lending in libraries.
  • The FCC made it easier for telcos to retire copper by putting a 2-year moratorium on public notices of upcoming copper retirements. The FCC is now working to make the temporary rules permanent.
  • In perhaps the biggest change, the White House ordered NTIA to cease the implementation of the $2.75 billion Digital Equity Act that was to be used for teaching people how to use computers, making sure every household had a computer or tablet, and promoting subscription to home broadband.
  • NTIA weakened the $42.5 billion BEAD grant program. The agency:
    • Watered down the assumed preference for fiber and tried to give more funding to alternative technologies like satellite.
    • Eliminated the mandate that anybody building a BEAD network had to have at least one broadband product that would be affordable for low-income households.
    • Weakened labor requirements and got rid of the preference for prevailing and union wages.
    • Perhaps the biggest long-term impact of the BEAD changes is that NTIA has seemingly defined satellite broadband as a legitimate broadband option for homes, meaning most homes can now be said to have a broadband option.
    • It looks like all of these changes might mean a $10-$20 billion reduction from the expected $42.5 billion program.
  • The FCC stopped the implementation of lower rates for telephone and video calls in jails and prisons.
  • The Federal Trade Commission halted the implementation of Click to Cancel, which would have mandated that any company that lets a customer subscribe online must make it just as easy to cancel service online.
  • While not specifically deregulation, the FCC has ignored its own timeline for kicking off the 5G for Rural America Fund, which is supposed to bring a lot more cell towers to rural America.
  • Courts continue to weaken the FCC’s authority. Several rulings in 2024 weakened the FCC. For example, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo overturned the Chevron Doctrine, which brings into question the ability of the FCC to enact laws that were not specifically mandated by Congress. This year, McLaughlin Chiropractic v. McKesson Corp gave District Courts more leeway to disagree with rulings made by federal agencies like the FCC.

To be fair, there are some new regulations to go along with the deregulation effort:

  • The FCC adopted some new regulations for poles related mostly to how pole owners must react to large orders for getting onto poles.
  • Congress reinstituted the spectrum auction for the FCC. However, that new law may reclaim some WiFi and CBRS spectrum for auction, which is key for rural and home broadband.
  • Tariffs on most imported goods have increased the cost of building broadband networks, particularly for electronics.
  • The FCC is suddenly opining on the content on network television and has threatened the broadcast licenses of the large broadcasters.

I couldn’t decide how to categorize the recent issue where the FCC said it was going to examine and try to kill any state regulation of AI. Should that be categorized as more deregulation, or an increase in federal regulation?

This is a huge number of changes for only an eight-month period, and I have to wonder how far the deregulation effort will go over the next few years.

Click to Cancel

The Federal Trade Commission voted on May 9 to delay the implementation of click to cancel until July 19. This was originally scheduled to be implemented last week. This blog is a heads up for any ISPs that takes orders online that you are required to offer online process to allow customers to disconnect service that is as easy as the process to buy online. This new rule has become labeled as click to cancel.

More specifically, the FTC rules include a negative option rule that says that a business can’t require customers who want to cancel to go through a different process than the one they used to buy a service. If a customer bought a service or an upgrade online, they must be able to cancel that service online.

This means an ISP can’t do things like making customers contact customer service during limited hours or endure lengthy phone menus to cancel. The new rules imply that an ISP might not be able to divert customers to a win-back process during the cancellation process, but could perhaps contact customers later.

The new rules also require a company to provide information about its cancellation policy before collecting customer payment information – online ordering systems should be modified to provide this information before asking for credit card or bank debit details.

The original rules were adopted by the FTC in 2024. Since taking office, President Trump has controversially fired two democratic FTC Commissioners, but the remaining three Republican Commissioners voted to continue the implementation of this process with the slight delay to give companies more time. The Commissioners recognized pleas from companies of the complexity of implementing the new process.

Another part of the new rules is that a company that sells online must be truthful and clear with customers about what they are buying. For instance, if a customer is subscribing to a promotional product, the instructions must make it clear how long the low price lasts. A seller needs to be able to demonstrate that buyers know what they are agreeing to, which means not putting important facts into fine print. ISPs are already subject to broadband labels required by the FCC, but this new requirement might require clearer language in the description of products and not just in the label.

These new rules might lead some ISPs to consider not offering sales online. However, even if you don’t sell online, the cancellation process can’t be any more complicated than the process to buy a service.

FTC Orders Click to Cancel

The Federal Trade Commission adopted new rules in what is being called the Click to Cancel order. The new rules require companies to make it easier for customers to cancel services. The ruling will be effective 180 days after being published in the Federal Register, which means it will likely be in place sometime in April 2025.

The premise of the ruling is that if consumers can buy a service online with a single click, it should be just as easy to cancel the service. This will affect any ISP or cable company that allows customers to sign up for new services online.

There is a long history of merchants that have made it exceedingly difficult to cancel service. I remember years ago that I used to joke with my friends that once you signed up with AOL that you would be a customer for life. The only way to cancel AOL was to call a customer service number. I once called the number and was on hold for eight hours before finally giving up. I was only able to finally cancel AOL when I got rid of the credit card it was charged to.

There are still a lot of merchants that make customers jump through a lot of hoops to cancel service. It’s often hard to find the cancellation process on a website. Even when your find it, the calculation process can put you through multiple confusing screens that can be hard to navigate. There are still many services you can buy online that can only be canceled by making a phone call – this probably sounds familiar to most ISPs.

Some of the players in our industry are notorious for making it painful for customers trying to cancel service. There are plenty of documented stories of folks who tried to cancel Comcast cable service and had to spend hours on the phone being handed from department to department, each which tried to win them back.

There are two major aspects of the new rules. First, companies that sell online have to be truthful and clear with customers about what they are buying. For instance, if customers are subscribing to a free trial, the instructions must make it clear about how long the trial lasts, how a customer can change their mind, and what happens at the end of the trial period. A seller needs to be able to show that people know what they are agreeing to, which means not putting important facts into fine print.

One of the major new rules is that the process for cancelling service has to be as easy as it was to buy service. It’s hard to think of a website that doesn’t have a ‘Buy Now’ button, and if they keep that, they’ll likely need an equally visible “Cancel Now’ button. That means no multiple screens to cancel – just one click to cancel.

The rules go further. If an ISP allows some customers to subscribe online but also sells through other channels like knocking on doors, the ISP must still have the online cancel process. For ISPs that don’t sell online, customers must be able to cancel by phone and not have to travel to a business office to cancel.

The FTC has promised that violators will face fines and civil penalties for not implementing the new rules. Little ISPs might think they are immune from being caught, but the FTC is famous for making an example of some small companies when it goes after big ones. You don’t want to be a poster child for being difficult for customers.

If you sell online, you have six months to develop and implement your online cancellation.