Signing up for Amazon Prime took two clicks. Cancelling it, according to the FTC's own complaint, required navigating four pages, six clicks, and fifteen separate options. Amazon's internal name for this cancellation flow was "Iliad," after Homer's epic. They knew it was a journey. That was the point.
This is not a design flaw. It is a design choice. And Amazon is far from the only company making it.
The pattern has a name
In UX design, this is called a "roach motel." Easy to get in, hard to get out. The more clinical term is "asymmetric friction": signing up is frictionless by design, while cancelling is deliberately complicated.
The mechanics vary. Some companies hide the cancel button behind nested menus. Some force you to call during business hours. Some deploy multi-screen retention flows that cycle through discount offers, guilt trips, and "are you sure?" confirmations before they'll let you leave. The goal is the same every time: make the process annoying enough that a percentage of people give up.
And it works.
75% of Australians with subscriptions have had a negative experience trying to cancel one. 10% gave up entirely and kept paying for a service they didn't want.
That stat comes from the Consumer Policy Research Centre's 2024 "Let Me Out" report. The CPRC estimates subscription traps cost Australians $46 million per year. Not because the services are worth that much, but because leaving is too hard.
The evidence is everywhere
This is not a fringe complaint. Regulators, courts, and consumer advocates have been building a case file for years.
Amazon Prime. The FTC sued Amazon in 2023 over its Prime enrolment and cancellation practices. The complaint alleged that Amazon enrolled consumers into Prime without clear consent using deceptive checkout flows, then made cancellation deliberately arduous. In September 2025, Amazon settled for $2.5 billion, including $1.5 billion in refunds to roughly 35 million affected customers.
Adobe Creative Cloud. The FTC took action against Adobe in June 2024 for hiding an early termination fee (ETF) that charges 50% of remaining monthly payments if you cancel in your first year. Adobe pre-selects its "annual paid monthly" plan during signup, buries the ETF in fine print, then forces cancellations through multiple screens, retention prompts, and sometimes live agents.
HelloFresh and Youfoodz. The ACCC filed Federal Court proceedings against both companies in December 2025, alleging that over 100,000 Australian consumers were charged for orders after attempting to cancel before the cutoff date. Despite advertising easy online cancellation, many customers could only cancel their first delivery by calling customer service.
The New York Times. A class action lawsuit alleged the NYT made digital signup instant but required a phone call during business hours to cancel. A nearly $2.4 million settlement followed.
I joined Anytime Fitness back in August 2023. I've emailed the local gym I signed up at 5 times to try and cancel the membership and they will not send me the form. I'm out of the 12 month contract and they keep taking money.
This is a pattern that spans industries. Streaming services, meal kits, gyms, newspapers, software. The product changes; the playbook does not.
Why it works (on you, specifically)
These flows are not designed randomly. They exploit specific cognitive biases that make people bad at quitting things.
Status quo bias. Humans default to inaction. If cancelling requires effort, most people will delay it. "I'll do it tomorrow" turns into three more billing cycles.
Sunk cost fallacy. "I've already paid for six months. Might as well get my money's worth." This keeps people subscribed to services they barely use, because leaving feels like admitting the original purchase was a mistake.
Decision fatigue. Retention flows work by throwing choices at you. "Would you like to pause instead? How about a discount? Are you really sure?" Each question drains willpower. By the fifth screen, accepting the discount feels easier than continuing.
A Maynooth University study found that across the top news subscription sites in four countries, the number of clicks to cancel was consistently higher than the number to subscribe, with US sites requiring roughly double the clicks. And 76% of the sites that did allow online cancellation padded the process with mandatory surveys, promotional offers, and confirmation screens.
Has anyone been able to cancel their Anytime Fitness membership without having to fake their own death?
The joke lands because it reflects something real. When the process is designed to make you give up, humour is how people cope.
Where Australia stands
Australia does not yet have an equivalent of the FTC's "click to cancel" rule (which was itself struck down by a US federal appeals court in July 2025). But regulation is coming.
The ACCC has made subscription traps and dark patterns a formal enforcement priority for 2025-26 and 2026-27. It has already taken action against HelloFresh, Youfoodz, and Microsoft (for misleading 2.7 million Australians about subscription options during its Copilot integration).
More significantly, the federal government announced in February 2026 that it will introduce legislation to ban unfair trading practices, specifically targeting subscription traps, drip pricing, and manipulative design. Assistant Minister for Competition Andrew Leigh described it plainly: "New Year's resolutions shouldn't come with a cancellation nightmare."
The draft legislation would require businesses to disclose key terms before signup, send timely reminders at critical points, and make cancellation as easy as subscribing. Penalties under the Australian Consumer Law framework could reach up to $50 million per breach.
This is promising. But the legislation hasn't passed yet, and enforcement will take time. In the meantime, existing protections under Australian Consumer Law are limited. Unfair contract terms provisions can apply to things like unreasonable early termination fees, but they don't specifically prohibit making the cancel button hard to find.
What you can actually do right now
Waiting for legislation won't stop your next billing cycle. Here's what works today.
Use email for everything. If you need to cancel by phone, follow up with an email confirming the cancellation and the date it was requested. This creates a paper trail. If the company disputes it later, you have documentation.
Know the cooling-off period. Under Australian Consumer Law, you have a cooling-off period for certain contracts (including gym memberships and door-to-door sales). If you signed up recently, check whether you're still within it.
Threaten an ACCC complaint. You can lodge a complaint at accc.gov.au. Companies that know you're willing to escalate tend to become more cooperative. You don't have to follow through (though you can). The threat alone changes the dynamic.
Request a chargeback. If a company charges you after you've cancelled, contact your bank. Australian banks can process chargebacks on disputed transactions. This is especially useful for companies that continue billing after you've made a clear cancellation request.
Cancel before you forget. This sounds obvious, but most subscription traps rely on inertia. If you signed up for a free trial, set a reminder for two days before it expires. Don't trust yourself to remember.
Know what you're paying for. The most effective defence against subscription creep is visibility. You can't cancel something you've forgotten about.
If you can sign up online, you should be able to cancel online.
It is not a radical position. It's the bare minimum. But until the law catches up, the gap between signing up and cancelling is something companies will continue to exploit.
Every subscription you forget about is revenue they never had to earn again.
You can't fix the system. But you can see exactly what it's costing you.
Most people find 3-5 subscriptions they forgot about when they actually look. Upload a bank statement to Subtracker and see every recurring charge in 2 minutes. No bank login. No manual entry. $12.99 once.
See what you're paying forChris Raad
Chris is the founder of Subtracker. He built this tool after experiencing the pain of discovering thousands of dollars in unused SaaS sprawl just before tax time.