Are you tired of opening your email Inbox and finding it filled with dozens, even hundreds, of junk emails from retailers and scammers? Are you frustrated with unwanted memberships and automatic payment services you can’t seem to stop? The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) is making it easier to ‘unsubscribe’ with a new ‘Time is Money’ initiative.
The Time is Money initiative is a slate of rules the FCC says will make it easier to get refunds, cancel subscriptions, and talk to a human if you have a complaint or billing issues. FCC says they will put out rulemaking that says that the companies must make it as easy to cancel a subscription, as it is to get a subscription.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which started rulemaking in March 2023 to enforce "click to cancel" policies, is also an important player in this initiative.
“The administration is cracking down on all the ways that companies, through paperwork, hold times and general aggravation waste people’s money and waste people’s time and really hold onto their money,” Neera Tanden, White House domestic policy adviser, told reporters Friday in advance of the announcement.
The Chamber of Commerce, which represents many different companies across many different sectors, objects to these proposals. Sean Heather from the Chamber said this is "an attempt to micromanage businesses' pricing structures, often undermining businesses' ability to give consumers options at different price points."
Many companies have pushed back on the proposals, saying that the government, specifically Democrats, are trying to over-regulate industry. Former President Donald Trump has on his platform trying to take the regulatory burdens away from companies. It is a delicate balance between over-regulation and consumer protection. With more regulation, bigger expense often follows and those expenses are passed on to the average consumer.
The Initiative also wants to stop the customer service “doom loop” where you get stuck in never-ending ‘press 6 for more options’ messages and never get to speak to a live person. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is developing rules that will require a caller to get a human on the phone with the push of a single button. Similar rules for phone, broadband, cable companies, and health insurance companies are being developed.
The Department of Labor and Health and Human Services are also pushing health insurance companies and group health plans to improve customer interactions. They want it to be easier for a customer to file a claim rather than having to fill out paper forms and fax them in or even take time off work to come in person.