Subscribing to online services is typically a straightforward process, but cancelling them can be arduous and confusing — causing many to resign and continue paying for services they no longer use. Making the cancellation process intentionally difficult is recognized as a dark pattern called Roach Motel. This paper characterizes the subscription and cancellation flows of popular news websites from four different countries, and discusses them in the context of recent regulatory changes. We study the design features that make it difficult to cancel a subscription and find several cancellation flows that feature intentional barriers, such as forcing users to call a representative or type in a phrase.
‹ All reading
Staying at the Roach Motel: Cross-Country Analysis of Manipulative Subscription and Cancellation Flows
This paper characterizes the subscription and cancellation flows of popular news websites from four different countries, and discusses them in the context of recent regulatory changes to point to a growing need for effective regulation of designs that trick, coerced, or manipulate users into paying for subscriptions they do not want.