UK PM Burnham vows to end ‘subscription traps’ amid cost-of-living crisis

British consumers are currently spending around US$2.2 billion a year on subscriptions ‘they don’t actually want’, Downing Street said

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has vowed to crack down on hard-to-cancel subscriptions and fake discounts as part of measures to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, Downing Street said on Sunday.

The announcement came as the new Labour leader was set to return to work after a holiday and begin a tour of the country to talk to people about their financial pressures, his office said.

Burnham said in a statement that “people are sick and tired of rip-off discounts and subscription traps”, where subscriptions are difficult to cancel or automatically renew at a higher cost.

He said his government would be “making it as easy to leave a subscription as it is to join”.

Currently British consumers are “spending an estimated £1.6 billion (US$2.2 billion) a year on [subscriptions] they don’t actually want”, Downing Street said.

New rules will come into force in January next year, it said, forcing businesses to give customers “clearer upfront information, regular reminders and a much easier exit to contracts”.

There will be a new 14-day cooling-off period to let consumers cancel after a trial or a long-term contract renews, the government announced, without describing how this would be implemented.