[Swenrekcah]

Netflix is not a basic utility. The only thing they have in common are similar billing intervals.

But that’s kind of beside the point. When you sign up for a subscription, they only commitment you have made is for the chosen billing interval.

If it’s a month you’ve committed for a month, if three years then you’ve committed for three years.

But you have not in any way shape or form committed to a single second beyond that.

Most (all?) have auto renewals clauses that are very convenient for both the seller and buyer, but to enforce it when the buyer wants to quit is basically extortion.

[glimshe]

Not being a basic utility is not relevant for the legal implications here, as the renewal terms aren't tied to being an utility - that was just a familiar example. The renewal laws are clearly specified in the contract you accept when signing up for these services, for instance Disney Plus says:

"If you do not timely cancel your subscription, your subscription will be renewed at the price in effect at the time of the newel, without any additional action by you, and you authorize us to charge your payment method for these amounts...We do not refund or credit for partially used used billing periods."

This can be easily read and argued as: if you do not cancel, you owe them. You can argue this in front of a judge, but it will be really hard to say it's "extortion" if the cancellation process is streamlined.

[Swenrekcah]

Of course I realise the terms and they may even be legal someplaces.

But the basic reality is that none of these firms would enter into a contract with terms like these because they are outrageous.

Just think about it. The act of doing nothing over a certain short time period is supposed to legally bind you in a new contract and even with unknown pricing?

This is not business between equals and people behaving this way deserve all the crap they can be tossed.

[glimshe]

Well, you can in theory cancel at any time. In the case of Disney and Netflix, it is pretty easy (or at least used to).

I don't do yearly subscriptions for this very reason, though.

[dghlsakjg]

It depends entirely on the terms and conditions that you agreed to.

It is entirely possible to sign up for a paid-monthly perpetual subscription that is much harder to cancel than "Just stop paying".

Gyms are kind of famous for doing this.