ROSCA Requirements: What the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act Says

The table follows the statute's own layout in Title 15 of the United States Code. The section most subscription sellers need is 8403. Section 8402 matters to anyone who presents another company's offer after checkout.

The Act was passed as Public Law 111-345 on 29 December 2010. The FTC calls it the only federal law primarily designed to regulate negative option marketing, and notes that it is limited to transactions effected on the internet.

The statute borrows its key term from the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule. As the FTC quotes it, a negative option feature is a provision in an offer or agreement under which the customer's silence, or failure to take an affirmative action to reject goods or services or to cancel the agreement, is interpreted by the seller as acceptance of the offer.

That definition covers the common subscription models. The FTC's 2021 policy statement lists automatic renewals, continuity plans, free-to-pay or fee-to-pay conversions and prenotification plans as typical forms of negative option. A monthly plan that renews until cancelled and a free trial that converts to paid both fit.

The limit is the medium. The FTC's March 2026 notice says ROSCA's prohibitions apply only to transactions effected on the internet, while the Telemarketing Sales Rule's more specific provisions apply only to telemarketing. The notice adds that harmful practices outside both still occur, which is part of the agency's case for a broader rule.

Section 8403 states them as conditions. It is unlawful to charge or attempt to charge any consumer through a negative option feature online unless the person meets each one. The list below gives them in the statute's order.

The order carries a timing rule. Disclosure has to happen before the seller obtains the consumer's billing information, and consent has to happen before the card, bank account or other financial account is charged. A disclosure that first appears in a confirmation email comes after both points.

The words 'attempt to charge' are part of the prohibition too. The text covers an attempt to charge as well as a completed charge.

• Provide text that clearly and conspicuously discloses all material terms of the transaction before obtaining the consumer's billing information
• Obtain the consumer's express informed consent before charging the consumer's credit card, debit card, bank account or other financial account
• Provide simple mechanisms for a consumer to stop recurring charges from being placed on that account

On disclosure, the statement says material terms include, at a minimum, the existence of the negative option offer, the offer's total cost and how to cancel. It says the terms must be disclosed before consumers agree to the purchase, and that disclosures should not contain other information that interferes with, detracts from or contradicts them.

On consent, the statement says the seller should obtain the consumer's acceptance of the negative option feature separately from any other portion of the transaction. A footnote adds that a pre-checked box does not constitute affirmative consent.

On cancellation, the statement says sellers should provide mechanisms at least as easy to use as the method the consumer used to start the negative option, through at least the same medium. It says sellers should not hang up on consumers who call to cancel, hold them for an unreasonably long time or give false information about how to cancel.

The FTC's 2026 notice records one more point. Congress charged the Commission with enforcing ROSCA and did not require it to write regulations under the statute. The policy statement and the agency's cases are therefore the main guide to how it reads the text.

Section 8402 deals with the practice that prompted the Act. A post-transaction third-party seller is a person who sells online and solicits a purchase through an initial merchant after the consumer has begun a transaction with that merchant. The definition excludes the initial merchant and its subsidiaries or corporate affiliates.

Such a seller may not charge the consumer unless it first discloses the material terms clearly and conspicuously, including a description of the goods or services, the fact that it is not affiliated with the initial merchant, and the cost. It must then obtain express informed consent by collecting the full account number, the consumer's name, address and contact information, and an additional affirmative step such as clicking a confirmation button or checking a box.

The data-pass rule faces the other way. An initial merchant may not disclose a customer's credit card, debit card, bank account or other financial account number, or other billing information used to charge the customer, to a post-transaction third-party seller for use in an internet sale by that seller.

Section 8404 says a violation of the Act is treated as a violation of a rule under section 18 of the FTC Act regarding unfair or deceptive acts or practices. The FTC's 2026 notice spells out what follows from that: the Commission may seek civil penalties under section 5(m)(1)(A) of the FTC Act, injunctive relief under section 13(b), and consumer redress, damages and other relief under section 19.

Section 8405 lets a state attorney general, or another authorized state officer, bring an action in a United States district court on behalf of the state's residents to obtain appropriate injunctive relief. The state must give the FTC written notice with a copy of the complaint, and the FTC may intervene. A state may not bring a separate action under the section while a federal action over the same alleged violation is pending.

The sections read for this post give enforcement to those public bodies and do not mention a suit by an individual consumer. Private claims over subscription practices are usually brought under state law, as the next section explains. The statute does not state a dollar figure for penalties; it points to the FTC Act.

The FTC amended its Negative Option Rule in October 2024 to add a ban on misrepresentations and requirements for disclosure, consent and a simple cancellation mechanism. On 8 July 2025 the Eighth Circuit vacated that rule, concluding that the Commission had failed to follow the procedural requirements of section 22 of the FTC Act. The court's opinion did not concern ROSCA.

The rule now in the Code of Federal Regulations covers only prenotification negative option plans, the arrangement in which a seller announces a selection and ships it unless the subscriber declines. Its source note cites a Federal Register entry of 12 February 2026. The FTC published an advance notice of a new rulemaking on 13 March 2026, with comments due by 13 April 2026, and we found no proposed rule as of 12 November 2026.

ROSCA expressly leaves state law in place. Section 8405 says nothing in it prohibits a state official from proceeding under state law. Benesch, a law firm, counted 28 states and the District of Columbia with automatic-renewal laws or regulations as of 14 August 2026. California's statute shows how much further a state can go: it specifies an online cancel link or button, reminder windows before a long trial ends and a period for which consent records must be kept.

On 25 September 2025 the FTC announced a 2.5 billion dollar settlement with Amazon over Prime enrollment and cancellation, charged under the FTC Act and ROSCA. It comprised a 1 billion dollar civil penalty and 1.5 billion dollars in redress for an estimated 35 million consumers. The FTC said this was only the third ROSCA case in which it had obtained a civil penalty.

The order's terms track the statute's three parts. As the FTC describes them, Amazon must clearly disclose the material terms of Prime during enrollment, including cost, the date and frequency of charges, automatic renewal and how to cancel. It must offer a clear and conspicuous button to decline, and an easy way to cancel using the same method used to sign up.

The March 2026 notice gives the wider picture. Complaints to the FTC about negative option marketing rose from at least 33 a day in late 2020 to more than 90 a day in 2025. Since January 2025 the Commission had initiated five cases alleging negative option misconduct and approved six settlements. Those counts are the FTC's own and stop at the date of the notice.