[anon7000]

Why on earth would it be unethical? They are creating a process for retrying a payment for which the customer is already responsible. Maybe the customer ultimately decides to cancel, maybe not, but a business is free to take into account whether a user is “active.”

[michaelt]

California introduced a 'click to cancel' law a month or two back - because a large number of subscription companies engage in a lot of sketchy behaviour, like making it almost impossible to cancel.

So this is already a pretty seedy area of business.

Now add to that the fact that the customer has ignored the payment-failed e-mail, and ignored the warning banners on the site during the grace period, and doesn't mind when they get cut off entirely. Clearly, this subscription isn't producing much value for the customer.

And then consider the ethics of offering expensive services to people who can't afford them. If a person lives in such abject poverty that their bank account has literally zero dollars in it, should I be pushing them to keep their subscription? Even when the service has so little value to them?

It's not technically illegal though.