---
id: "entity-ftc"
type: "entity"
source_timestamps: ["¶4"]
tags: ["regulatory-body", "consumer-protection"]
related: ["question-regulatory-impact", "quote-frictionless-exploitation"]
entityType: "organization"
canonicalName: "Federal Trade Commission"
aliases: ["FTC"]
url: "https://www.ftc.gov"
sources: ["commercial"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-commercial"
originDay: 5
articleStem: "hbr-tier2-08-subscription-auto-renew"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/05/should-your-subscription-business-use-auto-renew"
sourceTitle: "Should Your Subscription Business Use Auto-Renew?"
---
# Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

The **Federal Trade Commission (FTC)** is the US competition and consumer-protection agency.

**Relevance to this source:** The FTC **finalized its 'click-to-cancel' rule in October 2024**, requiring companies to make cancellation as easy as sign-up — signaling, in the authors' words, an end to 'frictionless exploitation' (see [[quote-frictionless-exploitation]]). Similar EU laws point the same direction.

This regulatory shift is central to the vault's biggest [[question-regulatory-impact-d5|open question]]: if cancellation becomes frictionless by law, does auto-renewal's historical **20–38% short-term retention advantage** shrink or disappear, making [[concept-acquisition-suppression]] even more decisive?

**Canonical URL:** https://www.ftc.gov