Hollywood Reporter: NBCUniversal Reaches $3.6 Million Settlement In Lawsuit Over Peacock Subscription Cancellations

Story from Hollywood Reporter:

NBCUniversal will pay $3.6 million to settle a lawsuit accusing it of failing to provide users an easy mechanism to cancel automatically renewing Peacock subscriptions.

As part of the deal, Peacock must give users a simple cancellation mechanisms to immediately halt all recurring charges and get their consent to convert auto-renewals and free trials to paid enrollments, among other things. The money from the settlement will go to Los Angeles County, which filed the lawsuit alongside the settlement on Wednesday, to enforce consumer protection laws.

The terms outlined in the agreement mirror rules that streaming platforms and other businesses would’ve had to implement if the FTC’s “click to cancel” rule went into effect. Under the measure, businesses would’ve been barred from making it more difficult to cancel than it is to sign up. It was intended to eliminate drawn-out cancellation processes aimed at trapping users in unwanted subscriptions, though the initiative was struck down by a federal appeals court earlier this month.

A patchwork of state laws govern cancellation processes for users, with some regions carrying specific laws aimed at protecting users from predatory subscription practices. That includes California, New York, Georgia, Florida and Tennessee.

LA County, which filed the lawsuit alongside the settlement, alleged violations of a California law over automatically renewing subscriptions, as well as a law protecting consumers from deceptive billing practices. The complaint targeted NBCUniversal neglecting to give users a clear explanation of the price that would be charged after a free trial ends, among other things.

NBCUniversal didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.