Why You Can't Cancel Anything and What to Do About It with Commissioner Sam Levine

About this episode

Kyla Scanlon discusses New York City's new click-to-cancel rule with Commissioner Sam Levine, exploring its implications for consumer protection and government efficacy.

New York City just proposed the first municipal click-to-cancel rule in the country, a direct answer to the subscription traps that keep you paying for gyms you don't go to and apps you forgot you had. I sat down with Sam Levine, Commissioner of NYC's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (and former head of the FTC's consumer protection bureau, where the federal version of this rule was written before a court struck it down), to talk about what the rule actually requires, why the city stopped waiting on Washington, and what it's like when even the consumer protection commissioner can't cancel a subscription. We get into what a compliant cancellation actually looks like, how enforcement works (it runs on your complaints: nyc.gov/consumers or 311), the Roosevelt Institute's estimate that this could save New Yorkers up to $162 million and 600,000 hours a year, and why Levine thinks the deeper stakes are about whether people believe government can work at all.

People in this episode

Host: Kyla Scanlon

Guest: Sam Levine

Topics covered

• consumer protection
• subscription services
• government regulation
• cancellation policies
• New York City
• public policy

Keywords

• click-to-cancel
• subscription traps
• consumer rights
• NYC regulations
• government action
• FTC
• Roosevelt Institute
• cancellation compliance

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: NYC's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, FTC, Roosevelt Institute

Places: New York City

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