How to let customers cancel a subscription online under the new UK rules

The rule in one paragraph

Customers can end a subscription at any time (draft regulation 32). The way to do it must be straightforward, with no steps that are not reasonably necessary, and if they signed up online they must be able to end it online, with instructions where they are likely to look (section 260). They can also end it simply by sending you a clear statement that they want to, for example in an email. Once they do, you must confirm the end date in writing: within 24 hours if they told you online, otherwise within 3 working days (section 261).

Ending is not the same as cancelling

The draft government guidance separates two things. Ending a subscription stops it renewing: the customer keeps what they have paid for until the end of the current period. Cancelling (in a cooling-off period, or because a business broke the rules) brings the contract to an end and can mean a refund. Your cancel page and your confirmation should make clear which has happened and the date it takes effect.

What the draft guidance says is acceptable

• A clearly labelled button on your website or in your app.
• A button in an online account, if you have accounts (you do not have to).
• A simple web form.
• Asking for account details so you can find the right subscription, as long as leaving stays straightforward.

The draft guidance says the aim is for leaving to be as easy as signing up, and that an exit route is more likely to comply if it takes a short time and needs no more than one contact with the business.

What is likely not acceptable

• An email address on its own as the online way to leave. The draft guidance says this is not a straightforward online route.
• Compulsory feedback. Making a customer answer questions before they can leave is unlikely to comply. Feedback can be optional during the process, or asked for afterwards.
• Retention offers that get in the way. Offers are allowed in principle, but must not drag out the process or put people off finishing it.
• Phone only, when the customer signed up online: the Act requires an online route in that case.

Grey areas

The draft guidance does not say whether making customers log in, reset a password or confirm their email address before cancelling is "reasonably necessary". Some tools send a sign-in link by email first: Stripe's no-code customer portal link does, though a portal session opened from your own site or app can skip that step. Until final guidance says more, keep any check as light as you can and make sure a clear statement by email always works too.

The cancellation confirmation

When a customer ends or cancels a subscription, you must confirm it in writing in a lasting form, such as email (section 261). The confirmation must:

• give the date the contract ended or will end;
• go out within 24 hours if the customer told you online, or otherwise before the end of 3 working days starting the day after they told you;
• make the required information more prominent than anything else in it, and make it readily apparent that it acknowledges the cancellation or ending (draft regulation 35);
• be in clear and plain language.

You must also refund any payment the customer no longer owes because the contract has ended (section 261).

Subject: Confirmation: your Riverside Yoga Online subscription will end on 31 July 2027

Hi Sam,

This confirms that you have ended your Riverside Yoga Online subscription with Riverside Yoga. It will not renew.

Your subscription will end on 31 July 2027. You can keep using it until then.

You will not be charged again for this subscription.

Reference: C-7F3K2. Requested on 14 July 2027.

If the customer cancelled in a cooling-off period instead, say that the subscription has been cancelled, the date it ended, and the refund they will get.

Cancellations by email, phone or post

A customer can end the contract by giving you a clear statement of their decision (section 260). The draft guidance says a customer who emails a clear statement that they want to end the subscription has ended it. That cancellation will not show up in your payment system by itself, so you need a way to record it, stop the subscription and send the confirmation on time.

A simple setup to consider

1. Put a "Cancel subscription" link in your website footer, in the customer's account area (if you have one) and in every reminder.
2. Let the customer identify themselves with something simple, such as their email address.
3. Show their subscription with one clear button to end it, and the date it will end.
4. If you ask why they are leaving, make it optional.
5. Show an on-screen confirmation with the end date, and send the confirmation email straight away.
6. Keep a record of the request and the confirmation. A customer's notice counts from when they send it (section 272), and you may need to show what happened.

You can see FairRenew's cancel page, built along these lines, in our demo.

Sources

We link to the law itself wherever we can. Section and regulation links in the text go to legislation.gov.uk.

• Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Part 4 Chapter 2 (subscription contracts) Law, not yet in force (a few provisions only so regulations can be made)
• The Consumer Subscription Contracts (Cancellation and Information) Regulations 2026 Draft, awaiting approval by Parliament
• Guidance on the subscription contracts rules (GOV.UK, 19 October 2026) Draft (the PDF cover says "Draft Guidance")