PETITIONOpenPetition · petition.parliament.uk
Require free subscriptions stop after trial & do not take bank details upfront
We would like to ask the government to mandate that all free to try subscriptions must not request payment details upfront and that they should terminate at the end of the free term unless the user makes a conscious decision to convert to a full plan - "act to keep going", not "act to cancel".
Last fetched 03 May 2026 · petition.parliament.uk
Signatures
73
signatures
Government response threshold (10,000) · 73/10,000
Debate threshold (100,000) · 73/100,000
Background
It is very common for digital subscriptions (music, video, digital services) to require our payment details upfront despite being advertised as free to try. These types of trial subscriptions are then very often automatically converted to recurring subscriptions after the initial trial under what we call "act to cancel" scheme.
We believe this mechanism is predatory and should be stopped.