On the Sunday night episode of his HBO show, John Oliver discussed the rise of subscription-based business models across the worlds of music, film and TV, beauty, food, cleaning services and more. A recent report found that Americans pay double the amount that they thought in monthly subscriptions, while about half of those surveyed still pay for one they had forgotten about or do not use. While newspapers and magazines have long had a subscription based business model, “the internet has made it much easier to apply a subscription model to basically everything.” Now you can subscribe to just about anything such as Apocabox, which sends you survivalist tools, and BoneBox, which ships you (non-human) skulls.
The normalization of subscriptions for music, film and TV streaming services began in the late 1990s when Netflix launched its DVD rental service and Salesforce introduced a subscription model for its software. Now, “smart” versions of appliances from baby alarm clocks to cat litter boxes often charge a subscription fee for continued use. The automobile industry has heavily leaned into the model, with up to $75 per month charged for services such as remote unlock or enhanced cruise control.
General Motors are set to bring in $25bn a year from subscriptions by 2030, rivaling the takings of Netflix. Meanwhile, HP automatically kills your printer ink cartridges if you fail to keep up with monthly subscription fees. There is a reason that you start birth announcements with dear family and friends, and not, ‘To whom it may concern at the Whirlpool corporation.’” There are easier ways to spot a new parent such as their tired eyes and emotional volatility, the host joked, that “crucially don’t involve spying on them through their fucking washing machine”.
Cancelling such subscriptions can be easier said than done. At times, people don’t even realize that they signed up for them in the first place. For instance, Amazon landed in hot water in 2023 when the Federal Trade Commission claimed that they were using dark patterns to get people to .
A former Amazon employee told reporters that “we have been deliberately confusing.” “While companies go out of their way to make it incredibly easy to subscribe, they can make canceling a fucking nightmare,” said Oliver. For instance, LA Fitness came under FTC scrutiny last year after they made canceling a gym membership a lengthy process that could involve placing phone calls to management and sending certified mail. For instance, cancelling a Hello Fresh subscription required navigating several confusing webpages until recently.
Last summer, the FTC’s proposed “click to cancel” rule was struck down by the conservative US appeals court.
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