The Subscription Tomb: Legal and Ethical Challenges of Auto-renewal Traps in the UAE

The rapid growth of digital services in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has intensified the use of subscription-based access across telecommunications, streaming, fintech, cloud software, and platform commerce. Auto-renewal can support convenience and service continuity; however, it becomes legally and ethically problematic when continuity is sustained through low-salience renewal, cancellation friction, information asymmetry, or predictable behavioral inertia. This research develops the concept of the subscription tomb as a bounded, theory-building construct that explains how an initially valid subscription can become a passive retention structure through the interaction of contract terms, interface architecture, consumer behavior, and supplier retention incentives. The research’s incremental contribution is not to rename dark patterns, negative-option billing, or subscription traps, but to integrate them into a cumulative account of continuing consent in recurring digital services. The study adopts a purposive integrative literature review and a qualitative doctrinal legal method. A total of 22 sources were selected from Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science, Hein Online, and official UAE regulatory databases because they were directly relevant to subscription business models, behavioral mechanisms, darkpattern design, UAE consumer protection, or service-excellence implications. Doctrinal analysis focuses on Federal Law No. 15 of 2020 on Consumer Protection, its 2023 amendments and theTDRA (Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority) Consumer Protection Regulations Version 2.0. The analysis finds that UAE law already provides important doctrinal anchors, including accurate information, fair terms, price transparency, complaint handling, compensation, and e-commerce disclosure.