• Sinupret@feddit.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      I was pretty sure that there is something and a lot of searching finally led me to the “Unfair Commercial Practices Directive” from 2005. There also is a guidance to that directive from 2021 that is found here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52021XC1229(05)

      Section 4.2.7 (dark patterns) is what is interesting for this topic. In the paragraph at the end of the section it includes the sentence:

      unsubscribing from a service should be as easy as subscribing to the service

      So it appears that the EU intended it that way but because it’s only a directive, implementation differs by country. I also didn’t see anything about being able to cancel in the same way you subscribed(e.g. that they can’t force you to call or send a letter if you subscribed online), but afaik german law has a ruling like this.

      Edit: I took so long to write this and find the links that I forgot the german law was the reason for the comment I answered…

    • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      10 months ago

      Under the GDPR, it must be “as easy to withdraw as to give consent”. You must make it very easy for people to unsubscribe: one or two clicks at most

      • bleistift2@feddit.de
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        10 months ago

        I’m not sure how the GDPR would apply to a service subscription. While the service is running, the companies have legitimate interest to keep your data, so you can’t have it removed.