Subscription Contracts: Right to Cancel

Lord Moynihan Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd December 2025 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Moynihan]

To ask His Majesty’s Government, in making regulations under section 267 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, what plans they have to account for concerns raised by cultural and heritage organisations regarding the right of consumers to cancel subscription contracts.

[Lord in Waiting/Government Whip (Lord Leong) (Lab)]

My Lords, the Government have consulted on how the new subscription rules will work under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act—this includes what happens when a consumer uses their cooling-off right to cancel—and are carefully reviewing responses from cultural and heritage organisations. My officials have engaged directly with sector representatives and will continue to do so to ensure that the final regulations reflect their concerns and support both consumer protection and organisational sustainability.

[Lord Moynihan (Con)]

My Lords, I have had a number of exchanges with the Minister, for which I am very grateful. In considering next steps, will he take into account the worries expressed by charities, and arts and heritage organisations, about the inevitable decimation of their fundraising efforts? Would he agree that introducing the cooling-off period set out in the recently enacted DMCCA immediately on signing up would allow thousands of people to join, say, art galleries, take advantage of the membership benefits of reduced admission fees to exhibitions over, say, a weekend’s holiday in London, and then legally cancel their memberships under the cooling-off period set out in the new Act, which will cripple membership schemes as a fundraising model that are currently worth hundreds of millions of pounds to charities across the UK every year? Will the Government accelerate their consideration to exempt our charities, museums, galleries and national heritage homes, just as they have exempted gambling contracts and society lotteries under Schedule 22 in order to protect their fundraising efforts?

[Lord Leong (Lab)]

The noble Lord will know that, under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, consumers already have a cooling-off period for distance contracts, so this is not new for the sector. The digital content waiver is long established, and most charitable memberships are service contracts, not digital content. We consulted on extending the waiver, as that would reduce consumer rights. Having said that, gambling is excluded due to the existing specialist regulations. We recognise the concerns raised by charities and heritage organisations about potential misuse and will continue to work closely with charities as we finalise the secondary legislation.