Staying at the Roach Motel: Cross-Country Analysis of Manipulative Subscription and Cancellation Flows

TL;DR

This paper characterizes the subscription and cancellation flows of popular news websites from four different countries, and discusses them in the context of recent regulatory changes to point to a growing need for effective regulation of designs that trick, coerced, or manipulate users into paying for subscriptions they do not want.

Abstract

Subscribing to online services is typically a straightforward process, but cancelling them can be arduous and confusing -- causing many to resign and continue paying for services they no longer use. Making the cancellation intentionally difficult is recognized as a dark pattern called Roach Motel. This paper characterizes the subscription and cancellation flows of popular news websites from four different countries, and discusses them in the context of recent regulatory changes. We study the design features that make it difficult to cancel a subscription and find several cancellation flows that feature intentional barriers, such as forcing users to type in a phrase or call a representative. Further, we find many subscription flows that do not adequately inform users about recurring charges. Our results point to a growing need for effective regulation of designs that trick, coerce, or manipulate users into paying for subscriptions they do not want.

Figures (18)

• Figure 1: A tweet posted by comedian Trevor Noah in January 2023, ridiculing the difficulties of cancelling subscriptions.
• Figure 2: Selected subscription and cancellation parameters (averaged) for European vs. American news sites. European average is taken from the averages of British persona subscribing to British sites, German persona to German sites and Dutch persona to Dutch news sites. The same applies for the US refering to American personas subscribing to American news sites.
• Figure 3: Cancellation parameters averaged for each persona subscribing to sites in their own country.: Method of cancellation (C1) *Online only; if we were presented with offers to stay during cancellation (C4); if we were asked to fill an exit survey (C2); and whether the exit survey was mandatory (C3).
• Figure 4: Average number of clicks it takes for each persona to subscribe and cancel to news sites in their own country. Extra clicks indicate the difference between the number of clicks for cancelling and subscribing. Note: USA CA and TX subsribing to same American news sites, European personas subscribing to national news sites
• Figure 5: (a) The New York Times' (NYT) auto-renew notice is in bold and notably bigger than the majority of news websites studied. (b) The Athletic's (owned by NYT) checkout page with their renewal information is displayed in small print at the bottom of the dialogue.