Senate committee advances bill to require easy online cancellation for automatically renewing subscriptions

At a meeting of the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee, senators voted 6 to 1 to advance Senate Bill 145 as amended to the Committee of the Whole. The bill aims to close a loophole in Colorado’s 2021 automatic-renewal law by requiring that contracts agreed to electronically provide an easy—sometimes one-step—online method for cancellation.

Senator Kipp, sponsor of SB 145, told the committee the bill “repeals and reenacts 1 small section of the auto renewal law from 2021 to make it clear that if you sign up somebody through an electronic contract, electronic means, you've got to provide easy and in some instances 1 step mechanisms for canceling it.” She said the change was intended to prevent businesses from routing consumers to in-person or burdensome mail-notarized cancellation processes. “We don't want people to have to go in for something they signed in up for online and then have to go in person to cancel it and then get the hard sell because that's not who we are in Colorado,” Kipp said, and she asked members for a yes vote.

Jan Zavistel, senior counsel in the consumer protection section of the Colorado attorney general’s office, said industry compliance improved after the state’s 2021 bill but consumers still report difficulty terminating automatically renewing subscriptions. “The biggest complaint we get and even till today we get is the difficulty in canceling these automatically renewing subscription contracts,” Zavistel said. She told the committee the bill is narrow and aimed at clarifying the law so consumers can cancel more easily.

Ruthie Barco, executive director of TechNet, said her organization supports the bill’s intent but is working with the sponsor on a “small technical change” to address member concerns and will continue consulting with Senator Kipp. Charles Riganti of the Colorado Health and Fitness Association said he represents independent gyms around the state and voiced concern that the bill’s current language could effectively mandate a website cancellation portal that smaller operators could struggle to build and maintain. “We support the intent of the bill and the language around a simple, cost effective, timely, and easy to use mechanism for cancellation,” Riganti said, and asked that the measure be amended to reflect federal approaches used elsewhere.

Senator Kipp offered amendment L001, which the sponsor said simply authorizes the attorney general to adopt rules implementing the section if necessary. Committee members voiced no opposition to L001 and the amendment was adopted. Kipp then moved SB 145, as amended, to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation. The committee recorded a roll-call vote: the motion passed on a vote of 6 to 1; the record shows Senator Anna Bazely voting no. The transcript does not list every individual yes vote by name in the roll call.

The bill, as amended, now goes to the Committee of the Whole for further consideration on the Senate floor.

(For reference: the sponsor said the bill closes a gap left by HB 21239, the 2021 measure that originally addressed automatic renewals.)