Key Points:

• State lawmakers move to stop automatic subscription renewals

• Legislation requires contracts to include easy cancellation option

• Other states have similar laws, with varying notice requirements and rules

So you signed up for a one-year gym membership and decided you really aren’t using it?

State lawmakers are moving to make sure that subscription isn’t automatically renewed — leaving you stuck paying the bill for yet another year.

The same would go for magazine subscriptions, virus protection software, and even that fruit-of-the-month basket that you thought you’d enjoy.

Without dissent, the state House approved legislation on March 5 that would require any contract offered to consumers with automatic renewal must also include an ability to cancel — and do so in the same way the person was asked to sign up.

The way Rep. Janeen Connolly describes HB2951 is that if you get an offer in the mail, you’d have to get a similar notice a month before it would automatically renew. The same would be true of offers originally made by phone, email or any other method.

Simply put, the proposal by the Tempe Democrat would bar businesses from making customers jump through additional hoops by adding requirements or additional steps to the cancellation process.

“HB 2951 helps our constituents who are trapped in subscriptions,” she told colleagues. “From retirees to college kids, all who could use a little bump due to the cost of living right now, this bill can make a difference.” 

Rep. Jeff Weninger, chair of the House Commerce Committee, said he thinks the legislation draws the right balance between the laws governing contracts and consumer protections.

“A contract’s a contract,” said the Chandler Republican. “And I get that.”

But he said there are those who abuse the system.

“You’ll sign a five-year contract … and it has this crazy language in it where 90 days before the expiration of this contract you have to send a registered letter to this address,” Weninger said. 

“Is it legal,” he said. “A way of tricking the consumer who doesn’t set a tickler in their phone five years from now to make sure that they’ve looked at that contract.”

It’s happened to him, said Weninger, who owns several restaurants.

“It’s my fault for not paying attention and going through every drawer at the place,” he said. This legislation, Weninger said, would ensure that individuals and business owners are notified — up front and close to when the contract would otherwise be renewed — about how they can keep that from happening.

Not everyone is pleased.

Michelle Ahlmer, executive director of the Arizona Retailers Association, said her members are unsure of exactly how they would comply. But Connolly has said she will work with her in an attempt to address those concerns when the bill goes to the Senate.

Other states have their own laws.

In Connecticut, for example, customers have to be given notice between 14 and 60 days before a contract is renewed. That has to be by mail unless the consumer consents to being notified electronically.

It even states that if the notice is not provided, any goods or services furnished after the expiration date are considered an unconditional gift.

Florida requires notice between 30 and 60 days telling customers that unless they act the contract will be automatically renewed. Illinois has a similar law, as does North Carolina, though with a different time window.

And some states have such requirements but only for certain services,

Tennessee law, for example, governs alarm services. And there is a Colorado statute dealing with health club memberships.