Companies to be forced to end subscription traps - minister

Companies are to be forced to make it "simple and straightforward" for consumers to cancel unwanted subscriptions or get their money back under new rules to stamp out the so-called subscription traps that are costing Britons £1.6bn a year.

- Zoe Wood

Justin Madders, the minister for employment rights, competition and markets at the Department for Business and Trade, told the Guardian: "We want to get money back into people's pockets when they've signed up to things that they didn't mean or want to."

Subscription traps are where consumers sign up for a subscription through a free trial or reduced-price offer. If they do not cancel the trial within a set amount of time, they are often automatically transferred to a costly subscription payment plan.