For businesses that sell subscriptions in the UK
New subscription law from 1 January 2027. We handle it for you.
From that date you must remind customers before you charge them, let them cancel online in one step, and refund within 14 days if they change their mind. We connect to Stripe and do all of it, with a record that proves it.
Free check, no account needed. Paid plans from £49 a month plus VAT, 14 day free trial.
What your customer will receive
Sam joins a £29.99 a month gym on 15 January 2027 with a 14 day free trial. These are the emails the law says Sam must get, worked out by Subscription Law.
- 15 Jan 2027Email: you have 14 days to change your mindSam can change their mind until 29 Jan 2027. The email must go by 16 Jan 2027.
- 15 Jan 2027Email: your free trial ends soon, first payment coming£29.99 is taken on 29 Jan 2027. The email must go by 26 Jan 2027.
- 29 Jan 2027Email: your trial has ended, you have 14 days to change your mindSam can change their mind until 12 Feb 2027. The email must go by 30 Jan 2027.
- 15 Jul 2027Email: reminder before your next payment£29.99 is taken on 29 Jul 2027. The email must go by 26 Jul 2027.
- 15 Jan 2028Email: reminder before your next payment£29.99 is taken on 29 Jan 2028. The email must go by 26 Jan 2028.
The new law, in plain English
Four things every subscription business must do from 1 January 2027
They apply to any business selling subscriptions to people in the UK, whatever its size and wherever it is based. The regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority, can fine a business directly, up to 10% of its turnover.
Remind customers before you charge them
An email before a payment is taken: at least every six months on a monthly plan, before every payment on an annual one, and before a free trial or offer price ends. It must say how much, when, and how to cancel in time.
Give them 14 days to change their mind
When someone joins, when a trial turns into a paid plan, and when a plan renews for a year or more, they get 14 days to cancel for a refund. You must tell them by email each time. Forget the email and those 14 days can stretch to a year.
Let them cancel online in one step
If they joined online they must be able to leave online, as easily as they joined. No phone call, no email, no survey first, no maze.
Confirm it and refund within 14 days
Confirm a cancellation within 24 hours if it came in online, or by the end of the third working day otherwise. Refund anything owed within 14 days.
How it works
Up and running in an afternoon
1
Connect your billing
Stripe, GoCardless, Chargebee, Recurly, Recharge, WooCommerce or Memberstack, read-only, in a few minutes. We read your plans, prices and subscribers. Nothing in your billing system changes and payments carry on as before.
2
Answer three questions about each plan
What kind of thing it is, whether the law covers it, and how far ahead of a payment you promise to remind people. That promise becomes the schedule.
3
We take it from there
Every subscriber gets the right emails on time, in your branding. Cancellations happen on your cancel page and land in Stripe. You see what is due, what went, and anything that needs you.
You keep taking payments where you take them now. We send every email the law requires and keep the proof.
What we do
Five things, one record
Each one covers a part of the law. The free check of your sign-up page tells you which you need first.
What your sign-up page must say
The law says the key facts must be on the page where people join, not buried in the terms: that it renews, how often, how much, how to cancel, and when the reminders come. We write that block for each plan, ready to paste in.
Payment reminders
Every reminder the law requires, sent by email at the time you promised, with the amount, the date and a cancel link. Sent once, never lost, never mixed with marketing.
One click cancel
A cancel page on your own web address, linked from every email and your account page. One step, at most one "before you go" offer, done. The cancellation lands in Stripe and the confirmation email goes out within the deadline.
Change of mind refunds
When someone cancels inside their 14 days, we work out what they are owed for what they have used. You approve it and the refund goes through Stripe, with the 14 day clock in view.
Proof
Every email, delivery, click, cancellation and refund is recorded in a log that cannot be edited. If the regulator or a customer asks, export the record for any subscriber or any period as a PDF.
- Your branding around the wording the law requires, which nobody can switch off.
- Dates worked out in UK time, with bank holidays taken into account.
- An alert in your dashboard and by email before anything is late.
- Every rule in Subscription Law lists where in the law it comes from, so your adviser can check it.
- Email first. Text messages as well on the Scale plan.
- We run our own subscriptions on the same system.
Who it is for
Businesses running subscriptions, not legal teams
- Apps and softwareFree trials, intro prices, monthly and annual plans.
- Memberships and communitiesOnline coaching, clubs and communities billed monthly or yearly.
- Meal and coffee boxesWeekly or monthly deliveries of fresh food and drink.
- PublishersDigital and print subscriptions with offer prices.
- Pet food and suppliesRepeat deliveries on the customer's own schedule.
- Gyms and fitnessIndependent gyms billing members directly.
Questions
What business owners ask first
- Does this apply to me?
- If you sell a subscription to someone in the UK that renews or keeps charging until they cancel, yes, wherever your business is based and whatever its size. Insurance, financial products and some charity memberships are excluded.
- When does it start?
- It applies to anyone who joins on or after 1 January 2027. Existing customers stay under the older 2013 rules until they take out a new contract. We tell the two apart from the join date.
- Do I have to leave my billing system?
- No. Stripe, GoCardless, Chargebee, Recurly, Recharge, WooCommerce or Memberstack keeps taking the payments. We read what it already knows and handle the emails, the cancel page, the refunds and the record. Other billing systems are coming.
- What if a reminder goes out late?
- A late reminder breaks the law, and a missed change of mind email can stretch a customer's 14 days to a year. We send at the time you promised, try again if an email fails, and warn you before anything is late.
- Is this legal advice?
- No. Subscription Law is software that runs the process the law asks for. Every rule in it lists the part of the law it comes from, so your own adviser can check it.
- What does it cost?
- From £49 a month plus VAT for up to 1,000 subscribers, with a 14 day free trial. Checking your sign-up page, the date calculator and a read-only report of your subscriptions are free.
Start here
Find out in a minute what your sign-up page is missing
Paste the page where customers join. You get a score out of 100 and a list of what to fix, in plain English.