New York City to become first in US to ban deceptive subscription practices
New York City to become first in US to ban deceptive subscription practices
纽约市将成为美国首个禁止欺骗性订阅行为的城市
New York City becomes first in the US to ban deceptive subscription practices. Rule from Mamdani administration bans companies from trapping customers into paying recurring charges and ‘junk fees’. 纽约市成为美国首个禁止欺骗性订阅行为的城市。Mamdani政府出台的新规禁止企业通过诱导手段让客户陷入持续扣费和“垃圾费用”的陷阱。
New York City has adopted a new rule that bans companies from using deceptive subscriptions to trap customers into paying for gym memberships, streaming services and other recurring charges, the city’s consumer protection office said. 纽约市消费者保护办公室表示，该市已通过一项新规，禁止企业利用欺骗性订阅手段诱导客户支付健身房会员费、流媒体服务费及其他循环扣费。
The new rule, which will start on 1 October, promises hefty fines and aggressive enforcement for violators. Companies that do not provide a simple way to cancel could pay $525 per user subscription, back fees and additional fines. 这项将于10月1日生效的新规承诺对违规者处以巨额罚款并进行严厉执法。未能提供简便取消途径的企业，每位用户订阅可能面临525美元的罚款，并需补缴费用及承担额外罚金。
The city is also targeting so-called “junk fees” that raise the final price of everything from apartments to sporting events, with a proposed rule that requires sellers to “advertise the total price for any good or service, including all mandatory additional charges and fees, up front”, according to a release shared with the Guardian. 据一份与《卫报》分享的公告显示，该市还针对从公寓租赁到体育赛事等各类消费中抬高最终价格的所谓“垃圾费用”采取行动，拟议规则要求卖家“预先公示任何商品或服务的总价，包括所有强制性的额外收费和费用”。
New York would be the first US city to implement such a ban. 纽约将成为美国首个实施此类禁令的城市。
“People shouldn’t have to wait on hold for half an hour or send a certified letter or show up to a store in person in order to cancel” a subscription, said Samuel AA Levine, the city’s commissioner of consumer and worker protection, in an interview. 纽约市消费者与劳工保护专员塞缪尔·AA·莱文（Samuel AA Levine）在接受采访时表示：“人们不应该为了取消订阅而被迫等待半小时的电话，或者寄送挂号信，甚至亲自前往门店。”
The new measures were announced in a press conference on Friday. 这些新措施已于周五的新闻发布会上宣布。
The proposed fee rule could have an especially wide effect, sending ripples through New York’s expensive housing market, where about 70% of residents rent. 拟议的费用规则可能会产生极其广泛的影响，波及纽约昂贵的房地产市场，该市约70%的居民为租房者。
Apartment renters in the US face a rising tide of add-on fees such as “boiler management” and “lifestyle” charges from management companies, which make true rental costs hundreds of dollars higher than the price stated on real-estate company websites. 美国的公寓租户正面临管理公司不断增加的附加费，如“锅炉管理费”和“生活方式费”，这使得实际租金比房地产网站上标出的价格高出数百美元。
If the proposed renters rule passes after public comment and hearing, any mandatory fees, including annual ones, would need to be included in the stated monthly rental price, Levine said. 莱文表示，如果拟议的租房规则在经过公众意见征询和听证会后获得通过，任何强制性费用（包括年度费用）都必须包含在公示的月租金中。
The current situation creates “a scenario where rather than competing on price, companies are competing on their ability to hide the true price. That’s the worst kind of incentive” – and one that deeply distorts the market, Levine said. 莱文指出，当前的情况造成了“一种局面，即企业不是在价格上竞争，而是在隐藏真实价格的能力上竞争。这是最糟糕的激励机制”，且严重扭曲了市场。
The moves are part of an aggressive push by Zohran Mamdani and Levine, a former head of consumer protection in the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), to rein in what they see as predatory corporate malpractice nationwide. 这些举措是Zohran Mamdani和曾任联邦贸易委员会（FTC）消费者保护负责人的莱文共同推动的积极行动的一部分，旨在遏制他们所认为的全国性掠夺性企业不当行为。
“In the dawn of the [Ronald] Reagan era, the FTC and others in Washington said expressly that … markets could correct themselves, regulate themselves, they were going to stop writing rules,” and allow companies to police their own behavior, Levine said. “What it has gotten us is 40 years of deceptive pricing,” he said. 莱文说：“在[罗纳德]·里根时代的初期，联邦贸易委员会和华盛顿的其他机构明确表示……市场可以自我修正、自我监管，他们将停止制定规则”，并允许企业自行监管行为。“这带给我们的结果是40年的欺骗性定价。”
Bans on junk fees and subscription traps are generally popular with consumers, but have been fought aggressively by industry groups. When the Biden administration introduced a junk fee rule in 2024, the US Chamber of Commerce argued it was “an attempt to micromanage businesses’ pricing structures”, and apartment fees were cut from that federal rule after lobbying by the real-estate industry. 禁止垃圾费用和订阅陷阱的举措普遍受到消费者欢迎，但遭到了行业团体的强烈抵制。当拜登政府在2024年引入垃圾费用规则时，美国商会辩称这是“试图微观管理企业的定价结构”，在房地产行业的游说下，公寓费用被从该联邦规则中剔除。
A national click-to-cancel rule introduced by the Biden administration was struck down by a federal judge in 2025, days before it was set to go into effect, over a procedural rule. Donald Trump’s FTC plans to pass a similar rule in coming months. 拜登政府引入的一项全国性“一键取消”规则在2025年即将生效的前几天，因程序性规定被联邦法官驳回。唐纳德·特朗普领导下的联邦贸易委员会计划在未来几个月内通过一项类似的规则。
Companies make billions a year in automatic subscription renewals that consumers do not want or do not know they have. The subscription rule could save New Yorkers alone as much as $162.5m per year, the Roosevelt Institute thinktank estimates. 企业每年通过消费者不想要或不知情的自动订阅续费获利数十亿美元。罗斯福研究所智库估计，仅订阅规则一项，每年就能为纽约人节省高达1.625亿美元。
While the subscription rule would only apply to New York City residents, the proposed junk fee rule affects companies such as hotels and rental car agencies that cater to visitors. If you are staying in a hotel in the city that hits you with undisclosed fees upon check-in, “you should complain to us”, Levine said. 虽然订阅规则仅适用于纽约市居民，但拟议的垃圾费用规则将影响酒店和租车公司等服务游客的企业。莱文表示，如果你在市内酒店入住时被收取了未披露的费用，“你应该向我们投诉”。
The new rule is the Mamdani administration’s latest attempt to address the affordability crisis after heavily campaigning on making the city cheaper for residents. Members of Mamdani’s democratic socialist group that were endorsed by the mayor won a flurry of primary elections in recent weeks, as some voters embrace leftwing populism that promises to empower working-class Americans, similar to pledges by Trump in the past three presidential elections. 这项新规是Mamdani政府在竞选期间承诺降低城市生活成本后，为解决负担能力危机所做的最新尝试。Mamdani所属的民主社会主义团体成员在市长的支持下，于近几周赢得了多场初选，这反映出部分选民拥护承诺赋予美国工人阶级权力的左翼民粹主义，这与特朗普在过去三次总统选举中的承诺有相似之处。
The New York city council has also proposed a rule banning “surveillance pricing”, in which companies charge consumers different prices for the same good or service, based on algorithmic information from their spending and other personal habits. 纽约市议会还提出了一项禁止“监控定价”的规则，即企业根据消费者消费习惯和其他个人习惯的算法信息，对同一商品或服务向不同消费者收取不同价格。
Maryland banned the practice in April. Colorado’s governor vetoed a ban last month. 马里兰州于4月禁止了这种做法。科罗拉多州州长上个月否决了一项相关禁令。
The city will take public comments on the junk fee rule and then hold a hearing, Levine said. “I certainly hope that we can get this rule done by the end of the year.” 莱文表示，市政府将就垃圾费用规则征求公众意见，随后举行听证会。“我当然希望我们能在年底前完成这项规则的制定。”