New laws in NY to make it easier to cancel subscriptions, boost privacy protections
New York consumers will soon be able to more easily cancel their online subscriptions and have better data privacy protections from "Buy Now, Pay Later" lenders under legislation included in the state's 2026 budget and signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul last week.
"This budget is all about affordability — lowering costs and helping New Yorkers with the rising cost of living," Hochul said. "But our tax cuts, credits and rebates won't be much help if bad actors are able to scam or mislead New Yorkers. These new laws are about fairness, transparency, and accountability and will help consumers save money and spend it wisely."
Here's what to know about the newly passed laws.
New York businesses now need to make their customers aware of upcoming subscription renewals and price changes as well as provide clear subscription cancellation instructions. Specifically, with this legislation, businesses need to provide consumers the option to cancel their subscription the same way they were able to accept an automatic renewal, continuous service offer or price increase.
The law will take effect in July, 60 days after it's been signed.
Retail sellers in New York with 500 or more employees statewide and an annual gross revenue of $500,000 or more from sales in the state are now required to offer full cash or credit refunds, equal exchanges or store credit for at least 30 days after an item has been purchased. Sellers' refund policies also need to be prominently displayed.
The law will take effect in August, 90 days after it's been signed.
NY to send inflation refund checks: How much will you get?
New York now has safeguards against "Buy Now, Pay Later" loans, such as disclosure regulations, dispute resolution standards, limits on all charges and fees and data privacy protections. Specifically, this legislation prevents "Buy Now, Pay Later" lenders from using, selling or sharing your data without your consent.
The law will take effect 180 days after the state Department of Financial Services enacts the legislation.
Businesses in New York need to clearly disclose when prices have been set by an algorithm using a consumer's personal data — coined "surveillance pricing" by the Federal Communications Commission — meaning a company could be charging you a different price than your neighbor for the same product.
The law will take effect in July, 60 days after it's been signed.
What to know: Proposed regulations aim to better protect NY consumers from overdraft fees
Stronger overdraft fee protections are not part of the budget but regulations were proposed by the New York State Department of Financial Services in January and mentioned in Hochul's 2025 State of the State address. If enacted, the proposed regulations would keep state-chartered banks from doing the following:
Charging overdraft fees on overdrafts of less than $20
Charging overdraft fees that exceed the overdrawn amount
Charging more than three overdraft or non-sufficient funds fees per consumer account per day
Charging non-sufficient funds feeds for instantaneously declined electronic transactions
Charging multiple non-sufficient funds or overdraft fees for the same transaction, including when a merchant resubmits a declined transaction
Charging a "sustained," "continuous" or "daily" fee for each day an overdraft balance is not repaid
Charging double fees to cover an overdraft, such as one fee for automatically transferring funds from another account and a second fee for the overdraft itself
Processing electronic debit transactions in a manner intended to maximize the number of overdraft and non-sufficient funds fees
Charging an overdraft fee for an electronic transaction when the consumer's account indicates sufficient funds at the time the transaction was initiated
Emily Barnes reports on consumer-related issues for the USA TODAY Network's New York Connect Team, focusing on scam and recall-related topics. Follow her on X and Instagram @byemilybarnes. Get in touch at ebarnes@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: New laws in NY to make it easier to cancel subscriptions, boost privacy protections
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez endorses Zohran Mamdani in NYC mayoral race
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a key progressive member of the House whose district covers swaths of the Bronx and Queens, endorsed New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani on Thursday for the city's upcoming Democratic mayoral primary -- one day after the candidate clashed with front-runner former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other candidates on the debate stage. "Assemblymember Mamdani has demonstrated a real ability on the ground to put together a coalition of working-class New Yorkers that is strongest to lead the pack. In the final stretch of the race, we need to get very real about that," Ocasio-Cortez told the New York Times in an interview published on Thursday. MORE: Cuomo, Mamdani vie for top spot in NYC Democratic mayoral primary "In 2018, A.O.C. shocked the world and changed our politics for the better with her historic victory. On June 24, we will do the same," Mamdani told the Times in a statement. Mamdani, a state assemblymember and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, has been steadily inching upward in the polls and fundraising. He is running on a progressive platform that includes a rent freeze for rent-stabilized apartments, eliminating fares for New York City buses and opening city-owned grocery stores. Mamdani envisions the latter two being funded by higher taxes on businesses and wealthy individuals; some have cautioned that he would need support from state government for those taxes. Her announcement came the day after a chaotic two-hour debate punctuated by candidates shouting over an increasingly exasperated slate of moderators. Nine Democrats who wish to be New York City's next mayor sparred over how they'd interact with President Donald Trump, public safety, affordability and other topics. Out of those who were onstage, Cuomo leads the pack in polling while Mamdani is slowly closing the gap in second place. The rest of the candidates have struggled to break through. MORE: 'CRAZY': Trump and Musk feud erupts on social media Each candidate was asked how they would work with -- or charge against -- Trump if elected mayor. Cuomo vowed that he is an adversary that Trump could not best. "He can be beaten. But he has to know that he's up against an adversary who can actually beat him. I am the last person on this stage that Mr. Trump wants to see as mayor, and that is why I should be the first choice for the people of the city to have as mayor," Cuomo said. Mamdani, answering the question, said, "I am Donald Trump's worst nightmare, as a progressive Muslim immigrant who actually fights for the things that I believe in, and the difference between myself and Andrew Cuomo is that my campaign is not funded by the very billionaires who put Donald Trump in D.C. ... I have to pick up the phone for the more than 20,000 New Yorkers who contributed an average donation of about $80 to break fundraising records and put our campaign in second place." Cuomo did not directly respond to Mamdani's attack on the debate stage. Some billionaires who have previously supported Trump, such as prominent hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and Home Depot founder Ken Langone, have donated to an independent group, the super PAC Fix the City, that supports Cuomo. Cuomo's campaign is not allowed to coordinate with the group. In response to reporting on Cuomo's wealthy supporters, Fix the City spokesperson Liz Benjamin told the New York Times that "donors have supported Fix the City because they know that Andrew Cuomo has the right experience and the right plans for New York City." Multiple controversies surrounding Cuomo -- including accusations against him of sexual harassment, which he denies -- came up during the debate. Former state assemblymember Michael Blake, while answering a question on public safety, brought up the sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo: "The people who don't feel safe are young women, mothers and grandmothers around Andrew Cuomo, that's the greatest threat to public safety in New York City." Cuomo, later asked about the allegations -- and if he would do anything differently given investigations that alleged his leadership fostered a toxic work environment -- told the moderators, "Let's just make sure we have the facts. A report was done four years ago making certain allegations. I said at the time that it was political and it was false." He added that five district attorneys found "nothing" and he was dropped from one case. "I said at the time that if I offended anyone, it was unintentional, but I apologize, and I say that today."
Politico
2 hours ago
- Politico
Trump could knock NY's climate goals over the edge
New York state was already struggling to meet its aggressive climate targets before President Donald Trump took office. Now it's locked in a showdown with the president and his antagonism toward environmental policies, writes Benjamin Storrow. Within weeks of taking office, Trump targeted a state plan to limit the number of gasoline-powered cars and trucks entering Manhattan. He reversed his decision to cancel a major offshore wind project in exchange for building a pair of natural gas pipelines the state had previously rejected. And that's on top of federal policies, such as killing generous clean energy tax incentives, that will make it harder for New York to go green. 'New York has been a leader on climate and this administration is coming after progressive climate policy,' Raya Salter with the state's Climate Action Council told Ben. 'That's why we need for our state to fight and push harder than ever and be the model that this country and the world needs.' But even without Trump, it's an uphill battle. Only a quarter of the state's electricity is produced with clean power, lagging far behind its goal of 70 percent by 2030. Natural gas companies are challenging the state's ban on gas hookups in new buildings. And New York's climate pollution from transportation remains stubbornly high, continuing to account for 40 percent of its greenhouse gas emissions. Rising energy costs are only complicating matters. While most of the country saw natural gas prices fall in 2024, New York and New England were exceptions. Gas prices in New York increased by 14 percent compared with 2023. That has created a political pressure point for Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, who said she is open to new gas pipelines to lower costs for consumers. While Hochul disputes it, Trump contends he secured Hochul's openness to pipelines by agreeing to lift his stop-work order on an offshore wind project. Environmental activists worry the move will further imperil the state's climate targets. 'It's going to be hard to reach the goals if you keep building infrastructure to expand [natural gas] consumption,' said Ira Joseph, a longtime gas analyst and senior research associate at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy. Thank goodness it's Friday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to askibell@ Today in POLITICO Energy's podcast: James Bikales breaks down why the auto industry's powerful trade group isn't taking a public position on Republicans' megabill. Power Centers Life after bromance: What's next for DOGE?The very public internet feud between Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk this week has thrown the fate of Musk's Department of Government Efficiency operation into question, write Robin Bravender and Hannah Northey. Trump downplayed the significance of the pair's blowup Thursday evening. But some federal employees are hopeful that DOGE will lose power within the administration after its early push to slash funding and fire employees. The fracas also raises questions about whether Musk's allies who remain in the DOGE operation will stick around, or might leave — or be nudged out — sooner than they had planned. How one climate tech company is hanging onThe bloodbath that Republicans are making of federal incentives for climate projects has stopped — for now — at the border of House Speaker Mike Johnson's district, writes Debra Kahn in Currents, POLITICO's climate column. That's where Heirloom Carbon is planning to build its first commercial-scale plant capable of extracting carbon dioxide from the air, by way of shallow trays of crushed limestone that absorb the planet-warming gas. In Other News Poaching prevention: To save rhinos, conservationists are removing their horns. Smoke knows no boundaries: What Canada's fires mean for the U.S. in the future. Subscriber Zone A showcase of some of our best subscriber content. Trump's mad dash to unleash more mining and burning of 'beautiful clean coal' across the U.S. is running face-first into unfavorable market realities. The Transportation Department formally started the process of rewriting the Biden administration's fuel economy standards for cars and trucks, which it says are legally flawed. Forest Service employees who accepted Trump's offer to resign will still be allowed to take on wildfire assignments this summer, according to a new agency memo. That's it for today, folks. Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!
Newsweek
3 hours ago
- Newsweek
Medicaid Cuts: New York Governor Issues Warning to Republicans
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Friday issued a plea to Senate Republicans to reject the House-passed "big beautiful bill" because of concerns that it could severely impact the most vulnerable Americans as a result of changes and cuts to programs such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the nation's largest nutrition aid program. Why It Matters The House budget proposal, which is the centerpiece of President Donald Trump's economic agenda nicknamed "One Big Beautiful Bill," aims to trim federal spending while offering significant tax cuts. The bill calls for hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicaid reductions, expanded work requirements for health and nutrition programs, and cost shifts to states. With nearly 1.5 million New Yorkers potentially losing health coverage, safety net hospital closures on the horizon and millions at risk of increased food insecurity, the bill's fate in the Senate holds high stakes for New Yorkers and recipients of these services nationwide. The bill advanced to the Senate after passing in the House 215-214, with two Republicans siding with Democrats in voting against the bill while two others didn't vote at all and one voted "present." New York Governor Kathy Hochul holds a press conference following a roundtable discussion about federal DOGE layoffs on March 3, 2025, in New York City. New York Governor Kathy Hochul holds a press conference following a roundtable discussion about federal DOGE layoffs on March 3, 2025, in New York To Know Among her various concerns, Hochul highlighted the restriction of health care access as a result of Medicaid and Affordable Care Act (ACA) cuts and the reduction in food security because of SNAP benefit cuts as the chief concerns among her many objections to the bill. She also pointed to the risks to the "safety and reliability" of the state's power grid and the significant challenges to education with cuts to the federal loan program and the reduction of Pell Grants. "Taken together, these provisions represent a regressive shift that threatens to widen educational disparities, destabilize community colleges and minority-serving institutions and undermine national efforts to promote affordable higher education," Hochul wrote. New York's seven GOP representatives turned their backs on their constituents by passing a budget that guts Medicaid and takes a sledgehammer to our health care system. I've worked hard to expand health care access, and I'm not backing down — Kathy Hochul (@KathyHochul) June 2, 2025 Hochul also hit out at the decision to merely increase the State and Local Tax (SALT) cap rather than entirely scrap it. She said it hurts higher-income states that end up benefitting relatively less than smaller states across the country. She criticized New York Republicans in the House who voted in support of Trump's bill, saying they refused to "advocate for the best interests of their state." Among the seven Republican representatives from New York, only Andrew Garbarino did not support the bill, choosing not to vote. The bill would slash $13.5 billion annually from New York's health care sector, primarily through reductions in Medicaid and Affordable Care Act marketplace funding, according to official state figures. Nearly 1.5 million New Yorkers face the loss of health insurance, and rural and safety net hospitals may be forced to close as a result of the cuts. Representative Andrew Garbarino, a New York Republican, leaves a House Ethics Committee closed-door meeting in the Longworth House Office Building on November 20, 2024, in Washington. Representative Andrew Garbarino, a New York Republican, leaves a House Ethics Committee closed-door meeting in the Longworth House Office Building on November 20, 2024, in bill also seeks to shrink SNAP benefits by $267 billion over a decade, tightening eligibility and shifting more costs to states beginning in 2028. Nearly 3 million New Yorkers could see reduced food aid, and the administrative burden on the state could exceed $2.1 billion per year. New requirements would mandate that parents of children age 7 and older work to maintain benefits, a significant change from the previous exemption for parents of children under 18. These are also just some of the concerns a handful of Republican senators have raised as the chamber prepares to vote on the House-passed version of the bill. Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Josh Hawley of Missouri have voiced opposition to Medicaid cuts. Other skeptical Republicans, such as Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, have voiced concerns about economic aspects of the bill, including the potential to increase the country's debt limit by $5 trillion, which also set off Elon Musk and inspired the tech mogul to initiate a war of words with the president on Thursday. What People Are Saying New York Governor Kathy Hochul, in a letter to Senate Republicans: "As Governor of New York, I am writing to you ahead of the Senate's consideration of the House reconciliation legislative package to underscore the detrimental impact this bill would have on my state. If enacted, the proposed bill would gut New York's healthcare system, strip families of crucial nutrition benefits, trigger billions in economic losses through the removal of clean energy tax credits, stagnate growth in education and critical technology sectors, and continue to unfairly tax hard-working New Yorkers by failing to fully repeal the SALT cap. Passage of this legislation would worsen the affordability crisis and inject further instability into an already fragile economy. "If New York Republicans in the House refuse to advocate for the best interests of their state, I will. As Governor, I must stand up for middle-class New Yorkers who cannot afford the consequences of this budget. I urge you to reject the House proposal and instead work with Leader Schumer on a bipartisan reconciliation package that delivers for working families, invests in the future, and reflects the real needs of the people we serve." Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, in an op-ed for The New York Times: "If Congress cuts funding for Medicaid benefits, Missouri workers and their children will lose their health care. And hospitals will close. It's that simple. And that pattern will replicate in states across the country." House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat: [The bill is a] "reckless, regressive and reprehensible GOP tax scam." House Speaker Mike Johnson, on the passage of the bill: "Today, the House has passed generational, nation-shaping legislation that reduces spending, permanently lowers taxes for families and job creators, secures the border, unleashes American energy dominance, restores peace through strength, and makes government work more efficiently and effectively for all Americans." What Happens Next The Senate is scheduled to debate the bill before July 4, aiming to meet that deadline at the president's insistence despite having until the end of September to pass the bill. The final legislation is expected to reflect alterations from ongoing negotiations.
