NYC is now the first city in America that bans sketchy subscriptions

纽约市成为全美首个禁止“套路订阅”的城市

New York City residents struggling to get out of recurring subscription fees can now submit complaints to the city government. As of Thursday, the city’s click-to-cancel rule has taken effect, which requires businesses to make it as easy to cancel a subscription as it is to sign up. That means a gym that lets you join online, for example, can’t make you call or go in person to end your subscription.

纽约市居民如果难以取消循环订阅费用，现在可以向市政府提交投诉。自周四起，该市的“一键取消”规则正式生效，要求企业让取消订阅的过程与注册订阅一样简单。这意味着，例如一家允许你在线加入的健身房，不能再强迫你通过电话或亲自前往现场来终止订阅。

It’s the first municipality to see the rule take effect, after an appeals court struck down a federal version for procedural issues. The city expects it to save New Yorkers anywhere from $21.5 million to $162.5 million annually. And to NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) Commissioner Samuel Levine, it’s an example of how state and local governments can hold companies accountable when federal efforts fail.

在联邦版本的相关规定因程序问题被上诉法院驳回后，纽约市成为了首个实施该规则的城市。市政府预计，此举每年可为纽约市民节省 2150 万至 1.625 亿美元。对于纽约市消费者和工人保护局（DCWP）局长塞缪尔·莱文（Samuel Levine）来说，这是一个范例，展示了当联邦层面的努力受挫时，州和地方政府如何能够让企业承担责任。

“No one should need 45 minutes of hold music to stop paying for something they never wanted,” NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement. “If a company can take your money with one click, you should be able to get your money back with one click. And now, if they won’t let you cancel, the City is coming for them.”

“没有人应该为了停止支付自己从未想要的服务而忍受 45 分钟的等待音乐，”纽约市长佐兰·曼达尼（Zohran Mamdani）在一份声明中表示。“如果一家公司可以通过一次点击拿走你的钱，你就应该能够通过一次点击拿回你的钱。现在，如果他们不让你取消，市政府就会找上门来。”

Levine was the Federal Trade Commission consumer protection chief under Lina Khan, and he tried to usher in the click-to-cancel rule at a national level. He says the experience of implementing the rule in NYC has been “night and day.”

莱文曾是莉娜·汗（Lina Khan）领导下的联邦贸易委员会（FTC）消费者保护负责人，他曾试图在全国范围内推行“一键取消”规则。他表示，在纽约市实施该规则的体验与在联邦层面相比有着“天壤之别”。

“We proposed this rule this year. We finalized it this year. It’s taking effect this year. This is the speed of government as it should be,” Levine tells The Verge in an exclusive interview. While Levine says he’s proud of his work on the FTC rule and sees it as a “model” for other state and local governments, “at the end of the day, it took more than four years. And then after all of that, it never actually gave Americans the relief they needed.”

“我们今年提出这项规则，今年完成定稿，今年正式生效。这才是政府应有的效率，”莱文在接受《The Verge》独家采访时说道。虽然莱文表示他为自己在 FTC 规则上的工作感到自豪，并将其视为其他州和地方政府的“模范”，但他补充道：“归根结底，那项工作耗费了四年多时间。而在那之后，它最终也没能真正为美国人提供他们所需要的救济。”

In New York, consumers can use a new portal to file complaints if they believe a business gave them unclear subscription terms, delayed cancellation, or failed to inform them the subscription would auto-renew. After filing a complaint, DCWP will review it and could reach out for more information and try to get consumers’ money back and help them cancel relevant subscriptions. If the agency sees a pattern of noncompliance at a certain business, it could prompt further investigation and legal action. Under the rule, businesses could face fines starting at $525 per violation.

在纽约，如果消费者认为某家企业提供了不明确的订阅条款、拖延取消流程，或未告知订阅会自动续费，可以使用一个新的门户网站进行投诉。提交投诉后，DCWP 将进行审查，并可能联系消费者获取更多信息，尝试追回款项并帮助他们取消相关订阅。如果该机构发现某家企业存在持续违规行为，可能会引发进一步的调查和法律诉讼。根据该规则，企业每次违规可能面临至少 525 美元的罚款。

The mayor’s Public Interest Technology (PIT) Crew built the portal in 10 weeks; Levine assures consumers that the experience will be far different from the White House’s newly launched America.gov, which he says appears to be “just an AI chatbot layered on top of the federal government’s existing infrastructure.” When consumers submit a complaint to the click-to-cancel portal, Levine says, “they’re not going to be diverted into a chatbot doom loop. We’re going to have actual people whose full-time job is to help them.”

市长的公共利益技术（PIT）团队在 10 周内搭建了这个门户网站；莱文向消费者保证，这里的体验将与白宫新推出的 America.gov 大不相同，他称后者看起来“只是在联邦政府现有基础设施上叠加的一个 AI 聊天机器人”。莱文表示，当消费者向“一键取消”门户网站提交投诉时，“他们不会陷入聊天机器人的死循环。我们将安排专人，他们的全职工作就是为消费者提供帮助。”