The US government wants to make it easier for you to click the ‘unsubscribe’ button

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the name of consumer protection, a slew of U.S. federal agencies are working to make it easier for Americans to click the unsubscribe button for unwanted memberships and recurring payment services.

A broad new government initiative, dubbed “Time Is Money,” includes a rollout of new regulations and the promise of more for industries spanning from healthcare and fitness memberships to media subscriptions.

“The administration is cracking down on all the ways that companies, through paperwork, hold times and general aggravation waste people’s money and waste people’s time and really hold onto their money,” Neera Tanden, White House domestic policy adviser, told reporters Friday in advance of the announcement.

“Essentially in all of these practices, companies are delaying services to you or really trying to make it so difficult for you to cancel the service that they get to hold onto your money for longer and longer,” Tanden said. “These seemingly small inconveniences don’t happen by accident — they have huge financial consequences.”

Efforts being rolled out Monday include a new Federal Communications Commission inquiry into whether to impose requirements on communications companies that would make it as easy to cancel a subscription or service as it was to sign up for one.

The Federal Trade Commission in March 2023 initiated “click to cancel” rulemaking requiring companies to let customers end subscriptions as easily as they started them.

Also Monday, the heads of the departments of Labor and of Health and Human Services are asking health insurance companies and group health plans to make improvements to customer interactions with their health coverage, and “in the coming months will identify additional