What are my rights against subscription traps and rolling contracts in the UK?

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Subscription traps -- where a free trial silently rolls into an expensive ongoing subscription, or where cancelling is made deliberately difficult -- have been a long-running consumer complaint, and UK law is tightening significantly to address this. **The old position under the Consumer Rights Act 2015** Even before recent reforms, contract terms had to be fair and transparent under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 -- a term that made it unreasonably hard to cancel (for example, requiring cancellation only by recorded-delivery letter to an obscure address, when sign-up took one click online) could potentially be challenged as an unfair term and therefore unenforceable, though pursuing this in practice was often difficult for individual consumers. **New protections under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024** This Act introduces specific new subscription contract rules, being phased in and enforced by the Competition and Markets Authority, requiring businesses to: give clear, prominent information before you sign up (including total cost, renewal terms, and cancellation rights); send a reminder notice before a free trial, introductory discount period, or fixed-term contract automatically renews or converts to a paid/higher-priced ongoing subscription; and provide a straightforward, proportionate cancellation process -- broadly, if you can sign up online in a few clicks, you should be able to cancel in a similarly simple way, not be forced to phone a retention team or navigate a maze of settings. **Cooling-off style rights for subscriptions** The reforms also introduce specific rights to exit a subscription within a short window after being charged following a renewal, giving consumers a further opportunity to get a refund if they missed the reminder notice or didn't realise the contract had renewed. **What to do if you're caught in a subscription trap** First, check your bank or card statements regularly for subscriptions you no longer use or don't remember signing up to. If you want to cancel, look for a self-service cancellation option first; if the company makes this unreasonably difficult, you can raise a complaint citing the unfair contract terms provisions and, where applicable, the new 2024 Act protections. As a last resort, your bank can often cancel a recurring Continuous Payment Authority (a card-based recurring payment) directly at your request -- the bank must act on this even if the merchant disputes it, since you have a legal right to stop a CPA through your bank. **Chargebacks and Section 75** If you've been charged after believing you'd cancelled, or a company refuses a refund you're entitled to, a card chargeback (for debit or credit cards) or a Section 75 claim (for credit card purchases between £100 and £30,000) can help recover the money, particularly where the company is unresponsive or has gone out of business. **Practical tip** Set a calendar reminder a few days before any free trial or promotional period ends, since even with the new reminder-notice rules being phased in, taking your own precaution remains the most reliable way to avoid an unwanted charge.

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