Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make it her policy to require businesses offering automatically-renewing subscriptions to send consumers a reminder message with an option to opt-out before their renewal date; and if she will make a statement.

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill strengthens consumers’ rights in relation to auto-renewing contracts, enabling them to manage them more effectively.

Under the new rules, traders must send consumers reminder notices before a trial or contract auto-renews, or at roughly 6 month intervals for shorter renewing contracts. The notice will include information on the steps the consumer can take to bring the contract to an end. In addition, a new ‘cooling-off period’ will give consumers 14 days to cancel certain contracts after they auto-renew to a period of 12 months or more, or after a free or discounted trial.