NYC to Outlaw Subscription Traps and Hidden Junk Fees Starting October

New York City has finalized a rule, effective October 1, that forces companies to offer an easy way to cancel recurring charges like gym memberships and streaming subscriptions. Businesses that make cancellation difficult face penalties of $525 per subscriber plus back fees and additional fines. The city’s consumer protection office estimates the measure could save residents up to $162.5 million a year, and it makes NYC the first US city to enact such a ban.

A separate proposed rule targets ‘junk fees’ by requiring sellers to advertise the full price of goods and services—including all mandatory add-ons—upfront. The impact could be largest in housing, where roughly 70% of residents rent and management companies routinely tack on obscure charges like ‘boiler management’ and ‘lifestyle’ fees. Because the fee rule would also cover hotels and rental cars, it would reach visitors as well as residents. A third proposal would ban ‘surveillance pricing,’ where firms use algorithmic profiles of a customer’s spending habits to charge different people different prices for the same product.

The push comes from the Mamdani administration and consumer protection commissioner Samuel Levine, a former FTC official, framed as a response to decades of deregulation that they argue rewarded companies for hiding true prices rather than competing on them. The moves mirror federal efforts—a national click-to-cancel rule was struck down on procedural grounds in 2025—and face heavy industry opposition, with groups like the US Chamber of Commerce having fought similar rules as government overreach.