Cable Giants Insist That Forcing Them To Make Cancellations Easier Violates Their First Amendment Rights
from the this-is-why-we-can't-have-nice-things dept
Neither the FCC nor FTC has a particularly good track record of standing up to broadband and cable giants when it comes to their longstanding track record of anticompetitive behavior, price gouging, or nickel-and-diming their often captive customers with bogus, hidden fees.
Though occasionally one of the two agencies does step in to try make a bare minimum effort to rein in the industry’s worst impulses, such as the FTC’s attempt, unveiled last March, to force companies to stop making cancelling service a pain in the ass. As you probably already know, many companies require you jump through elaborate hoops if you want to cancel, upselling you the entire time.
The FTC’s proposed provision would make it just as easy to cancel a service as it is to sign up, requiring companies provide easy, “one click” access to cancelling service online. Said FTC boss Lina Khan at the time:
“The proposal would save consumers time and money, and businesses that continued to use subscription tricks and traps would be subject to stiff penalties.”
But the cable and broadband industry, which has a long and proud tradition of whining about every last consumer protection requirement (no matter how basic), is kicking back at the requirement. At a hearing last week, former FCC boss-turned-top-cable-lobbying Mike Powell suggested such a rule wouldn’t be fair, because it might somehow (?) prevent cable companies from informing customers about better deals:
“The proposed simple click-to-cancel mechanism may not be so simple when such practices are involved. A consumer may easily misunderstand the consequences of canceling and it may be imperative that they learn about better options,” NCTA CEO Michael Powell said at the hearing. For example, a customer “may face difficulty and unintended consequences if they want to cancel only one service in the package,” as “canceling part of a discounted bundle may increase the price for remaining services.”
Not to be outdone, Powell took things one step further and attempted ye olde “throw every argument possible at a wall and see what sticks” legal approach, at one point even trying to claim the FTC’s requirements would harm the cable industry’s first amendment rights (which makes no coherent sense):
“the FTC ‘proposal prevents almost any communication without first obtaining a consumer’s unambiguous, affirmative consent. That could disrupt the continuity of important services, choke off helpful information and forgo potential savings. It certainly raises First Amendment issues.'”
The cable and broadband industry makes its bundle pricing as complicated and punitive as possible, not only making it hard to simply outright cancel service, but often making it impossible to actually know how much you’ll pay for service in the first place. The goal isn’t just to rip you off; it’s to making pricing so convoluted that it’s hard to do price comparisons or understand how much you’re even paying.
Comcast and friends are already fighting a separate initiative by the FCC requiring they be up front and transparent about the specifics of your broadband line and how much it costs.
Again, this isn’t even regulators trying advanced policies like trying to regulate rates or encourage competition. These are just very basic initiatives trying to force lumbering telecom and cable giants to make pricing transparent and transactions easy. And even these efforts result in years of legal wrangling, assuming they can survive a rightward lurching, corporate-friendly court system in the first place.
And this all comes before the looming Supreme Court rulings designed to make U.S. regulators more impotent than ever. Defanging and defunding U.S. regulators always comes under the pretense that this will somehow result in unbridled innovation, when, as the cable and broadband industry routinely demonstrates, that simply couldn’t be any further from the truth.
Filed Under: 1st amendment, broadband, cable, cancellation, consumers, fcc, one click, prices
Companies: ncta
Comments on “Cable Giants Insist That Forcing Them To Make Cancellations Easier Violates Their First Amendment Rights”
Like certain commenters on Techdirt, cable giants are asserting their First Amendment rights to send crap into people’s homes (through the TV rather than the computer/cellphone) over individuals’ First Amendment rights to not receive it.
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My trash receptacle has first amendment rights to store garbage till pick up.
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Rights are afforded to people, not objects. So I guess your comments going into your trash receptacle with the rest of your garbage (even though trash and garbage are two different things).
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yer funny
'Customers should be as informed as we want them to be and no more'
“the FTC ‘proposal prevents almost any communication without first obtaining a consumer’s unambiguous, affirmative consent. That could disrupt the continuity of important services, choke off helpful information and forgo potential savings. It certainly raises First Amendment issues.’”
[…]
Comcast and friends are already fighting a separate initiative by the FCC requiring they be up front and transparent about the specifics of your broadband line and how much it costs.
The arguments on their own are terrible and telling enough but put them together and you get a truly priceless situation where the same companies are both fighting against being required to inform customers about the details of the service they are about to sign up for and claiming that allowing customers to quickly and easily cancel service is terrible because customers might not have all the facts needed to make an informed decision.
Truly a perfect example of trying to have it both ways.
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Trying, and until now, succeeding. But let’s look at how the FTC says their communication will be restricted at cancellation time:
That’s it. There’s no rule that would make package cancelation confusing or forbid them from saying exactly what’s going to be canceled, and nothing that requires there to be only “one click”. (The number of “steps” must not be more than the signup process, but certain signup steps like entering one’s name and credit card number could easily be replaced by other steps at cancelation.)
So, all they have to do is come up with a cancelation process that’s easy to understand. I’m told Californian companies have already had to do that in response to state law, and I haven’t heard of any epidemic of “accidental cancelation” there.
Some people just don’t like it when other people attempt to withdraw consent.
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Like rapists. Cable companies can be thought of as akin to financial rapists.
One thing after another
You are being unfair. You have to acknowledge that the industry has already shown its goodwill by being serious about the “unbridled” bit (hope you don’t object to the juxtaposition of “unbridled” and “bit”).
Before it gets to the “innovation” part of the promise, they can well expect that the benefuckturds do something in return for the bribes they received in the course of the unbridled corruption that is a proud hallmark of the U.S.-specific cynic implementation of capitalism on top of purportedly democratic structures.
Calling his customers stupid, while refreshingly honest from a telecoms CEO, is not the defense Powell seems to think it is.
It’s not a pretense, the innovations will be in ways to get more money from every customer for a service getting worse and worse, because they will not spend money on maintaining and upgrading networks.
Sounds Consistent With Other "Free Speech" Absolutists
Forcing me to listen to what someone wants to say without giving me the option to respond or opt-out is consistent with what the so-called absolutists think free speech is.
the issue is not free speech but monopoly control
Comcrap et al could have free speech to jerk their customers around and make things inconvenient and difficult for them to understand if the customers could respond by kicking Comcrap to the curb and signing up for a competitor who can write in clear English and not play BS games.
In order for that to happen there would have to BE competitors in all markets in all parts of the country. So until the free market can solve this problem, Comcrap et al should be regulated like power and water, as a monopoly utility. Instead of their BS being controlled by consumers, it will be controlled by the PUC.
High time for this to happen. Broadband access is no more optional to a modern lifestyle than power or water. It’s a utility and should be regulated as such.
Re: Cancellation
This is not an American-only, cable-only or broadband-only problem. All over the world companies in all kinds of businesses like to make subscribing easy and cancellation unnecessarily hard. Many countries have laws that regulate this practice and some punish companies that violate the law with serious fines.
I am in favor of consumer protection laws, especially in areas where competition is non-existent.
Indeed, when the regulators get tough, the broadband companies become much more innovative in their bizarre lobbying. At least they’re innovating something.
Civil War avoided?
If only the slaveholding states had thought of that. “Forcing me to stop forcing humans into bondage violates my 1st Amendment rights.” The whole Civil War could have been avoided.
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Well, they did have that whole “States’ rights” argument.
AND the real Big think
Is that NO consumer can take them to court, To Enforce the laws and regulations.
As a Citizen, can we get ahold of the STATE contract, then add the federal one, AS WELL as the Corp regulations into this that All corps are supposed to LIVE BY, that have been buried by the wayside.
A Citizen does not have the power to get Most of the stuff they need/want. And even with a lawyer. Proving anything without LOTS of backing and money, may not happen.
Cable Company Games
The very idea that cable companies wait to offer their customers better deals only when faced with cancelation tells me all I need to know.
“You need to let us save you from what we’re going to do to you if you don’t let us save you!” – ISPs
Dish is no better
Just canceled after 12y. Left Comcast, sleazy team, violated the contract and claimed nobody had a contract like that.
Anyway, Dish, let’s you do nearly everything online. Except cancelling the service. You have to call their physical support in their timezone.
Once the dude figured out that I really wasn’t going to change my mind he got all fussy about what stuff is being returned, and they would charge me up to #325 if they don’t get it within 30d.
12yo equipment? Well, the actually charged my card $14 and change. So, scare tactics. Yep. Creepy customer support. Yep. Did I cancel anyway. Yep.
Innovation
Competent regulators interfere with the one true goal of capitalist innovation: getting more money for providing less product or service.
hmmm
Last I heard cancellation is pretty easy.. just stop paying for a while.
Still can’t read
When you sign a contract you are responsible for fulfilling that contract.
One click cancellation and no more bundles will raise the costs for those of us who actually read what we are signing.