Advertising: automatic renewal and continuous service offers: notice and online termination.

Existing law regulates automatic renewal offers and continuous service offers that businesses make to California consumers. Existing law makes it unlawful for a business that makes an automatic renewal offer or continuous service offer to a consumer in this state, among other things, to fail to present the automatic renewal or continuous service offer terms in a clear and conspicuous manner, to charge the consumer for an automatic renewal or continuous service without first obtaining the consumer's affirmative consent, and to fail to provide an acknowledgment that includes the automatic renewal or continuous service offer terms, cancellation policy, and information regarding how to cancel in a manner that is capable of being retained by the consumer, as specified. This bill would also make it unlawful for the business to fail to provide a consumer with a notice explaining how to cancel an automatic renewal offer or continuous service offer if the consumer accepted a free gift or trial, lasting for a predetermined period of time, that was included in an automatic renewal offer or continuous service offer or accepted an automatic renewal offer or continuous service offer at a promotional or discounted price, and the applicability of that price was limited to a predetermined period of time. The bill would require the notice to be provided at least 3 days before and at most 7 days before the expiration of the predetermined period of time and, if sent electronically, to include a link that directs the consumer to the cancellation process. Under existing law, if a consumer accepts an automatic renewal or continuous service offer online, then the business is required to allow the consumer to terminate the offer exclusively online, which may include a termination email formatted and provided by the business. This bill would revise and recast those provisions to additionally require the business to allow a consumer to terminate the automatic renewal or continuous service offer at will, and without engaging any further steps that impact or restrict the consumer's ability to terminate immediately. The bill would require the business to provide a method of termination that is either on the internet website in the form of a direct link or button to cancel or by the email described above.