Kamala, Keep Lina Khan

Because what she does is both good policy and good politics.

Case in point, the Federal Trade Commission has banned the roach motel business model:

It will soon be easy to "click to cancel" subscriptions after the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) adopted a final rule on Wednesday that makes it challenging for businesses to opt out of easy cancellation methods.

“Too often, businesses make people jump through endless hoops just to cancel a subscription,” FTC chair Lina Khan said in a press release. “The FTC’s rule will end these tricks and traps, saving Americans time and money. Nobody should be stuck paying for a service they no longer want.”

The heart of the new rule requires businesses to provide simple ways to cancel subscriptions. Under the rule, any subscription that can be signed up for online must be able to be canceled online. And cancellation paths for in-person sign-ups must be just as easy, offered either by phone or online.

In guidance released Wednesday, the FTC recommended that businesses keep "three guardrails in mind" to ensure cancellation methods comply with the law. First, customers cannot be required to talk to a live agent or chatbot to cancel if that wasn't required for sign-up. Next, any phone cancellation methods cannot include charges and must be offered during normal business hours. And finally, canceling services in person must always be optional.

To comply with the rule, businesses offering "negative option marketing" such as subscriptions, automatic renewals, and free trial offers—to both consumers and other businesses—are prohibited from misleading customers. They must clearly disclose all terms of the deal prior to accepting payment, including explaining how much and how often customers will be charged, when free trials or promotions end, any deadlines to avoid charges, and, importantly, how to cancel.

………

That provision is designed to end unfair and deceptive practices that the FTC found, such as inadequate disclosures about free trials or sneaky auto-enrollments. Those "practices have been a persistent source of consumer harm for decades," the FTC's notice on the final rule said, "saddling shoppers with recurring payments for products and services they never intended to purchase nor wanted to continue buying."

………

There were only a few major changes to the final rule following the public commenting period. Notably, the FTC dropped a provision that would have required businesses to send annual reminders about recurring charges, as well as another prohibiting promotions or deals offered during the cancellation process in efforts to retain customers without customers opting in to seeing those offers.

The FTC said that it's only dropped these provisions for now, noting that the Commission plans to keep the record "open on these issues" and may seek additional comments.

Of course, the Supreme Court will end up hearing this after wack-doodle corrupt Matthew Kacsmaryk issues an injunction against this, and then say that the Federal Trade Commission has no authority to regulate this, because the right wing dirtbags on the court want to return us to the days of Lochner.