The Federal Trade Commission has issued rules requiring that it be as easy to unsubscribe from services as it had been to describe. There is a good summary in the Washington Post.
It brings me joy to see a watchdog agency protecting ordinary people.
I know of too many horror stories about the difficulties in unsubscribing and remember even seeing sitcom episodes about it.
There is opposition to this. The two Republican commissioners voted against it.
Corporations and their trade associations are suing to block it. Putting their dollars and weight to perpetuate “shady practices” that harm consumers.
I count these shady practices as evil.
I count working to perpetuate these practices as evil.
I’d like a simple badge saying evil given to practitioners and and advocates of wrongly making life difficult for consumers for their own benefit.
And a goodness badge for companies whose practices were already pristine.
Milton and Rose Friedman described the “Double PP, Double CC” game of privatizing profit while commonizing costs. These companies steal small amounts of money and time from many people who can’t effectively put in the effort to fight while gobbling up the spoils.
It reminds me of the recent victory in the long-running Network Neutrality fights and my gratitude to all who worked to help establish and maintain it, including the good works of the Federal Communication Commission.
