Greetings all and Happy Late Friday Afternoon!   We hope everyone is surviving enjoying the holiday season, staying safe and more importantly, minding the waistline and the liver.  Turning to business, we will be publishing a year end summary of 2025 auto renewal legislative and regulatory developments in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, we just learned of this little nugget ... 

 

On Wednesday, December 3, the FTC published in the Federal Register a request for public comment on a joint petition it received from the Consumer Federation of America and the American Economic Liberties Project seeking to "renew" the FTC's "Click to Cancel" rule that was vacated by the 8th Circuit last summer.  

 

 

While this statement can be reasonably read as a definite maybe, given FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson's having voted against the rulemaking under former Chair Lina Khan's helm, and even signing on to then Commissioner Melissa Holyoak's scathing 13 page dissent, it would seem more likely his position would be more akin to "Hey, I'll call you for lunch after the holidays."  Read:  Don't hold your breath. Moreover, the FTC never appealed the 8th Circuits vacating the Rule last July, suggesting it wasn't interested in reviving it.  But, as any astute follower of FTC developments in the current administration knows, the agency has been on an unprecedented tear of subscription-related cases this year, having announced a half dozen major ROSCA settlements in 2025, with three in the last few months, including the historic $2.5 billion settlement with Amazon as we reported here.  So.. as always.. who knows?

 

The CFA/AELP Petition is available here and the deadline for comments is January 2, 2026.