Free trials and subscriptions you did not mean to keep

The trial always ends on the day you are not thinking about it. What the order button has to say, what the cancellation rules give you, and how to cancel so that it counts.

Checked 2026-09-07

A free trial is a subscription with a pause button that lets go by itself. That is no scandal, it is the business model, and it works because the day the trial ends is never the day you are thinking about it. The defence is therefore not legal but calendrical: put the end date in your diary the moment you start the trial, one day earlier than the real one, and cancel through the same channel you started with. Keep the confirmation.

There is law too, and it starts at the button. Since 13 June 2014 an order button that costs money has to say so: "order with obligation to pay" or words to that effect. A trial that turns into a paid subscription must say so before that button, together with the amount that will then run. If it is not there, you are not bound by the follow-on payment. And on a subscription taken out online you have the ordinary fourteen-day cooling-off period, with one catch: for a digital service the trader may start at once if you expressly agree and acknowledge that you give up your cooling-off right by doing so. That tick box is not there by accident, and it is often ticked already.

What happens after the first period is national. Several countries cap the notice period once a contract has renewed tacitly: the Netherlands since 1 December 2011 at one month, Belgium under a law of 25 April 2007 at two, Germany since 1 March 2022 at one. Elsewhere the general EU rule applies: the duration and the conditions for ending the contract must be stated clearly before you sign up, and a term you were never shown is not a term you agreed to. The country that matters is the one the shop sells into, which is usually the one it shows prices for.

What you may expect regardless: cancelling must be possible the way you signed up. A service that let you join online and sends you to a weekday-only phone line to leave is making it hard, but the cancellation counts from your message, not from their acknowledgement. Write the date down. And a bank card that expires stops nothing: the service simply tries again, and the subscription runs until you have ended it yourself.

At Amazon Prime and the other large services the cancel button is in your account, usually three clicks deep. At a small service you had never seen before, the question of whether you will find it again is a reason to leave the trial offer alone. What you can demand of a seller is in Your rights when you buy online; how you paid decides whether a refused refund can still be recovered elsewhere, and that is in How you pay decides what you can get back.

Questions

May a subscription renew tacitly for a whole year?

In several EU countries not without letting you cancel afterwards on short notice: one month in the Netherlands and Germany, two in Belgium. Everywhere, the renewal terms must have been stated clearly before you signed up.

I forgot the trial. Can I get the first payment back?

Often yes, if the switch to paid was not clearly stated before the order button. Ask in writing. If it was stated, the answer is to cancel, and quickly.

Does a cancellation by email count?

Yes, if you could sign up through that channel. Keep the message with its date; it is your proof if the service claims it received nothing.

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