On 16 October 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced its final “Click-to-Cancel” Rule that applies to businesses that offer goods and services through automatically renewing payment plans, free or discounted trials that convert into full plans, or other “negative option features” that interpret a consumer’s silence as permission to keep charging them (collectively, “recurring subscriptions”). Under the finalized rule, the FTC may seek civil penalties of over USD 50,000 per violation, injunctive relief and consumer redress for companies that violate the requirements of having detailed transparent, consent and simple cancellation processes for recurring subscriptions and memberships.

The latest edition of our Field Guide to Going Global helps you examine foreign law issues for taking business models, products and technology international. Our guidance should be helpful whether you are working for a start-up company or a large multinational enterprise that is broaching new frontiers.

On Tuesday, 23 January 2024 we are hosting an in-person client event in our New York office on Generative AI: Harnessing the Power and Mitigating Risk. The program includes an exciting in-house counsel panel featuring key speakers from Calix, Wolters Kluwer and Tiffany & Co. We’ll also hear from a cross-discipline Baker team who will discuss legal and regulatory considerations and mitigating risk when using Gen. AI,

If you sell goods and services to consumers through automatically renewing payment plans, free or discounted trials that convert into full plans, or other “negative option features” that interpret a consumer’s silence as permission to keep charging them, you should monitor and consider submitting comments on the Federal Trade Commission’s proposed Negative Option Rule. The proposed rule would impose detailed transparency, consent, simple cancellation and annual reminder requirements on companies that use any medium to offer recurring subscriptions for products or services, and allow the FTC to seek civil penalties of over USD 50,000 per violation and consumer redress for violations.

Regulatory and enforcement agencies in the US are increasingly taking a closer look at AI and its potential for bias and other harms, but a new Baker McKenzie study has found many in the C-Suite are overconfident in assessing AI threats. Meanwhile, critical blind spots exist in HR and hiring tools oversight. Examine three key challenges and how to address them.