The subscription economy powers today’s modern e-commerce landscape. Every brand, business, or service operates partly or wholly on a subscription model. Recently, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a major ruling cracking down on unfair or deceptive practices related to subscriptions, memberships, and other recurring payment programs.After more than 16,000 consumer complaints, the FTC is making it easier for consumers to cancel subscriptions. The FTC recently announced its final “click-to-cancel” rule, requiring sellers to make it as easy for consumers to cancel their enrollment as it was to sign up. The rule applies to businesses that offer goods and services through automatically renewing payment plans, free or discounted trials that automatically convert into monthly subscriptions, or other “negative options features” that interpret a consumer’s silence or failure to take affirmative action as permission to keep charging them.The new rule will prohibit sellers from misrepresenting facts while using negative option marketing and will require sellers to provide important information before obtaining billing details or charging customers. Sellers will also now be required to obtain a consumer’s expressed informed consent to a negative option feature before charging them and provide a simple mechanism for canceling the negative option and ending payment. Violators of the rule can be subject to up to $51,744 in civil penalties per violation, as well as consumer refunds and damages.“Too often, businesses make people jump through endless hoops just to cancel a subscription,” said Commission Chair Lina M. Khan in a statement.