About the subscription rules

This means the timing and wording of notices may change before the rules start, or afterwards when final guidance is published. FairRenew keeps all notice timing and wording in one set of rules that we can update quickly, and we will tell you when we do.

What the rules (some still draft) ask of businesses, in short

• Clear information before sign-up, including when you will send reminders, and a tick or button where the customer acknowledges they will have to pay. Our free sign-up wording generator drafts this for you.
• A copy of the terms by email (or another lasting form) soon after sign-up and before supply begins, if you did not already give it in a lasting form.
• Reminders before a free trial or introductory price ends, before the last payment in each 6-month period on rolling plans (about twice a year on a monthly plan), and twice before each annual renewal. Each reminder must include a set list of facts, such as the amount, the date, and how and by when to cancel.
• A separate cooling-off notice when a trial or introductory offer turns into full price, and when an annual plan renews. The customer can then cancel until the end of the 14th day after the renewal.
• Easy online cancellation, with a confirmation of the end date within 24 hours of an online cancellation.
• Refunds within 14 days when someone cancels in a cooling-off period.

For more detail, with examples and links to the law, see our guides to the new rules, or check whether the rules apply to you.

Some things are left for businesses to judge, such as how many days before a payment a reminder should arrive. FairRenew uses defaults (reminders between 14 and 7 days before a payment) that you can change; whether they are reasonable for your business is for you to judge.

Contracts the rules do not cover

Schedule 22 to the Act (with the changes in the draft regulations) excludes these. If your subscriptions fall into one of them, do not switch on sending for them. A contract is only excluded to the extent it falls in the list, so a bundle may be partly covered.

1. Utilities: electricity, gas, heat networks, water and sewerage.
2. Financial services: banking, credit, insurance, personal pensions, investments, payment services.
3. Goods, services and digital content for health purposes supplied under a prescription or by a prescriber (the draft regulations take glasses and contact lenses out of this exclusion, and add dentists as prescribers).
4. Health services provided under NHS-type arrangements.
5. Electronic communications services regulated by Ofcom (for example phone and broadband).
6. Premium rate services.
7. Renting a home (residential accommodation).
8. Food, drink and other everyday household consumables supplied by a micro-entity (as defined in company law) through frequent or regular delivery made by the business itself (not mainly by a courier), or collected from its premises.
9. Package travel.
10. Timeshares and similar holiday products.
11. Childcare provided by registered or approved providers or schools, including care for school-age children.
12. Gambling and lotteries.
13. Draft regulations: charity memberships that give access to property the charity preserves or creates (such as buildings, land, gardens, animals, works of art or scientific collections), or to performances or films.

Business customers are not covered either. FairRenew skips Stripe customers with a tax ID or a tax-exempt or reverse-charge status as likely businesses (set Stripe metadata fairrenew=include to include one), and any customer or subscription with fairrenew=skip.

FairRenew sends notices. It does not give legal advice. This page is a plain English summary, not a full statement of the law. Check your own position with a qualified adviser.