The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced an Advance Notice of Public Rulemaking (ANPRM) formally restarting the rulemaking process to amend its Negative Option Rule addressing subscription offers, automatic renewals, and other negative option features on March 11, 2026.
The ANPRM follows the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit’s vacatur of an Biden-era expansion of the Negative Option Rule last summer (which we covered in detail in our previous post here) on procedural grounds.
In the ANPRM, the FTC poses a series of questions for public comment, including comment on:
- Business-to-Business (B2B) Coverage: Whether the new rule should be expanded to cover B2B transactions or if it should remain focused exclusively on consumer-facing marketing.
- Disclosure Requirements: What specific information must be disclosed to consumers prior to enrolling them in a negative option program and how those disclosures should be presented.
- Consent Mechanisms: What constitutes “express informed consent” for a recurring subscription and whether specific checkboxes or secondary confirmations should be mandated.
- Cancellation Procedures: Whether the rule should formally mandate a “click to cancel” mechanism that makes canceling a subscription as easy as initiating it.
Companies utilizing recurring billing or subscription models should not, however, view the restarted rulemaking process as an enforcement pause. The FTC continues to possess robust enforcement power under Section 5 of the FTC Act and the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act and is likely to continue to vigorously engage in enforcement actions over subscription practices.
Businesses interested in submitting comments regarding the ANPRM should get their responses in by April 13, 2026.
