Mamdani Admin Moves To Make Cancelling Your Subscriptions Easier

By Claudia Irizarry Aponte, The City

April 9, 2026, 12:48 p.m.

A change in policy proposed by the Mamdani administration this week could make it easier for New Yorkers to cancel subscriptions, automatic renewals and continuous service offers, as part of the new mayor’s wider crackdown on what he’s described as “subscription tricks and traps.”

The so-called “click to cancel” proposal introduced by the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection would strengthen the city’s existing, decades-old consumer protection law in order to make it as easy for New Yorkers to cancel a subscription as it was to sign up.

Companies that charge early cancellation fees, make customers jump through hoops to end subscriptions or charge hidden fees are already in violation of the city’s consumer protection law, said DCWP commissioner Sam Levine. But the agency’s proposed changes, which are subject to a 30-day public review period, would “streamline” the agency’s efforts to investigate complaints and enforce the law, and allow the agency to impose fines and pursue restitution for ripped-off consumers.

“In an environment where people are really trying to save money, people have really busy lives, the idea that companies can trap New Yorkers in subscriptions, drive up their prices and waste their time is unacceptable to us,” Levine told THE CITY.

But it was not yet clear how long it would take for the city to implement the rule changes. Levine acknowledged that the agency’s proposals may be subject to court challenges but said the agency is on “solid legal ground.”

The proposal stems from Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Jan. 5 executive order instructing DCWP to lead a citywide crackdown on hidden fees and subscription traps. The agency has already taken action, launching a compliance blitz against deceptive gym and health club memberships and hotel junk fees.

In pursuing the “click to cancel” provision, the agency seeks to ensure customers can cancel subscriptions without any hassle, but also to ensure companies clearly spell out their subscription terms when customers sign up, said Levine. The agency, he said, already responds to consumer complaints of alleged violations of the city’s consumer protection law, including predatory subscription and cancellation policies, but these changes will help “streamline” its probes.

Amid this push, the agency may have a headcount challenge. The DCWP is facing budget cuts in the mayor’s preliminary budget for the upcoming fiscal year, despite its mandate growing in recent years to include enforcement of worker protection laws, including laws governing the rights of the city’s more than 65,000 app-based delivery workers.

With the proposal, Levine is taking some of his aggressive tactics from President Joe Biden’s Federal Trade Commission to the local level. In 2024, when he was director of the FTC’s consumer protection bureau, the agency introduced a set of rules that, among other things, sought “click to cancel” provisions at the federal level.

That proposal faced fierce pushback from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest trade organization, which said the regulations amounted to micromanaging business practices. A federal judge sided with the Chamber’s legal challenges and killed the federal “click to cancel” rules last year.

Also during the Biden administration, the agency sought legal action against Amazon for enrolling customers in Prime subscriptions without their consent and making it difficult for them to cancel, and pursued a separate action against Adobe for charging customers early cancellation fees. Last year, Amazon settled with the FTC for $2.5 billion, and in March settled with Adobe for $150 million.

With the federal “click to cancel” rules still in flux, consumer advocates say local jurisdictions need to step up in order to protect consumers.

at Garofalo, director of state policy at the American Economic Liberties Project, said Levine’s proposal allows for a “proactive” approach to enforcement, in contrast with the federal government’s approach of going on a case-by-case basis. Click-to-cancel rules, he said, “allows you to set the standard across the economy.” He added that federal challenges don’t prevent other jurisdictions from enacting their own rules.

“The FTC is not doing much of anything,” he said. “So it’s really incumbent on other jurisdictions to step up and do the sort of things that the federal government has been negligent on.”

Levine said that while the agency is willing to modify its proposals “if necessary” after the public comment process, “we’re certainly not going to back down because, because lobbyists don’t like the idea of having to give consumers their rights back.”

This press release was produced by The City. The views expressed here are the author’s own.