Signing up takes one click. Leaving can take a support ticket, a 28-day notice period and, in some cases, a letter from a debt collector. Regulators in the UK, the US and Australia now have household names on file, and the UK's new subscription rules arrive in January 2027. Here is who is doing it now, what to watch for, and how to get out.

155mactive subscriptions in the UK

£1.6bnspent each year on subscriptions people don't want

£14average monthly cost of each unwanted subscription

26%of UK adults took out a subscription by accident in a year

Figures: UK Government (August 2026) and Citizens Advice.

What a subscription trap looks like

A subscription trap is rarely one trick. It is a stack of them: a monthly price that hides a twelve-month commitment, auto-renewal switched on at checkout, a cancellation window that closes weeks before the renewal date, a cheaper plan you only see once you try to leave, and a fee for leaving early. Some of these are lawful on their own. Stacked together, they turn "cancel any time" into "cancel next year".

"Subscription traps" is the government's own phrase, and it has put a number on the damage. Below are the companies doing it now – described on the record, with their side of it where they have given one.

Private customers have rights. Businesses have a contract.

Sign as a business and you sign away most of your rights.

Buying as a private individual

14 days to cancel most goods and services bought online or by phone.
30 days to reject faulty goods for a full refund.
Unfair terms don't bind you, and a price buried in small print can be challenged.
Regulators can investigate, fine the company and secure redress for customers.
From January 2027: renewal reminders, an easy exit and a refund window after renewal.

Buying as a business

No legal cooling-off period for online or phone purchases.
No general unfair-terms protection – you are held to what you signed, with only narrow limits on clauses that exclude liability.
Goods must still be of satisfactory quality, but there is no 30-day refund right and it is easier for sellers to limit what they owe you.
None of the January 2027 subscription protections.
Your real leverage is the notice deadline and whatever you negotiate before signing.

Buy as a person when it's genuinely personal

If a subscription or a purchase is for you – your own laptop, your home antivirus, your family's Microsoft 365 – buy it as a private customer. Don't add a company name or VAT number out of habit, and if a checkout offers a business account, only take it when the purchase really is for the business. The law treats you as a consumer when you buy wholly or mainly outside your trade or business, and business details on the order make that harder to show if there is ever a dispute.

It doesn't work in reverse. You can't turn a business purchase into a consumer one by paying with a personal card: if the software runs your business, you are a business customer, whatever name is on the account. Many personal licences forbid commercial use anyway – TeamViewer's free version is for private use only – and buying privately usually means you can't reclaim the VAT.

The most expensive examples we found are business phone contracts – see Business phone systems below.

Who is doing it now

The table below covers companies facing an open investigation or lawsuit over their subscription practices, or whose current published terms do the trapping. Being on it is not a finding that a company has broken the law; most of these cases are unresolved. Companies that have settled or agreed changes after regulator action – McAfee, Norton, Amazon, Match Group (Match.com, OkCupid, Plenty of Fish), HelloFresh, Shutterstock, and the Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo gaming memberships – are left off. If you are a customer of one of those, see Refund commitments already on the record below. For everyone else, our advice is simple: where you have a choice, don't sign up with the companies below.

The last six rows are business platforms whose standard contract terms lock customers in. They are included for reference, not because a regulator has acted – see When it has to be a business purchase below. "Alleged" means a claim that hasn't been proven.

Company	Product	How it works	Where it stands
Adobe	Creative Cloud	"Annual, billed monthly" plan; 50% of the remaining year to leave early	CMA investigation open; $150m US settlement
Microsoft	Microsoft 365 Personal and Family	Renewals rolled onto a pricier Copilot plan; cheaper Classic plan not made clear	CMA investigation open; court case in Australia
TeamViewer	Remote access	12-month auto-renewal; 28 days' written notice; no exit mid-term	Published terms; no regulator action
AnyDesk	Remote access	Annual only; cancel 30 days before expiry, the day the reminder arrives	Published terms; no regulator action
NordVPN	VPN and security apps	Unclear auto-renewal, early charges and layered cancellation (alleged)	Class actions in several US states
Uber	Uber One	Sign-ups without consent; up to 23 screens to cancel (alleged)	FTC and 21 US states suing
JustAnswer	Online expert advice	$1 or $5 "join" fee starts a $28–$125 monthly plan (alleged)	FTC suing
LA Fitness	Gym membership (US)	Cancel in person or by post only (alleged)	FTC suing
Apple	iCloud+	Users steered and locked into paid iCloud storage (alleged)	Which? £3bn claim; trial expected 2028
The Times	Digital news subscription	Sign up online; cancel by phone	Terms and customer reviews; no regulator action
O2 (Virgin Media O2)	Mobile contracts	Annual price rise raised above what the contract said; 30 days to leave penalty-free	Allowed under Ofcom rules; Ofcom "disappointed", rules under review
4Com (HiHi phones)	Business phone systems	Five- to seven-year equipment finance leases; introductory prices that end; "upgrades" that start new leases (alleged)	BBC investigations 2025; 4Com continues regardless
Hii Comm (HII Communications)	Business phone systems	Third-party equipment leases; terms longer and costs higher than sales staff described (alleged)	BBC undercover investigation 2024; 4Com bought 497 of its customers in 2023
Salesforce	CRM (business)	Renews for a year unless you give 30 days' written notice	Standard business terms
HubSpot	CRM (business)	12-month commitment on Professional and Enterprise, even when paid monthly	Standard business terms
Zoom	Video meetings	"Annual billed monthly": payments continue after you cancel	Standard terms; customer complaints
DocuSign	E-signatures (business)	Annual plans renew by default; refund only in the first 30 days	Standard business terms
Microsoft	Microsoft 365 business licences	Annual term: cancel or cut seats only in the first 7 days; monthly term costs 20% more	Standard business terms
Google	Google Workspace (business)	Annual plan: no cutting licences until renewal; leave early and pay the full commitment	Standard business terms

Software

Adobe

Adobe's default Creative Cloud plan is "annual, billed monthly". The price looks monthly; the contract is a year. Cancel more than 14 days after signing up and you owe 50% of whatever is left on the year, according to the Competition and Markets Authority's (CMA) summary of the terms.

In the US, the Department of Justice sued Adobe and two of its executives in June 2024 on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), alleging the fee was buried in fine print and that cancelling had been made deliberately difficult. An unredacted version of the complaint quoted an unnamed Adobe executive describing the fee as "a bit like heroin for Adobe". In March 2026 Adobe agreed a $150 million US settlement – $75 million in civil penalties and $75 million in free services – along with orders to disclose the fee clearly and give subscribers easy ways to cancel. Adobe says it disagrees with the government's claims, and has argued the fee reflects the discount customers receive for committing to a year.

In the UK: the fee still applies, and the CMA opened an investigation on 19 March 2026 into whether it is an unfair contract term and whether customers are told about it clearly enough before they buy. It has made no finding, and its next update is due this autumn.

If you're a customer: the first 14 days are your free exit. After that, decide before the next year starts whether the true monthly plan or an annual prepaid plan suits you better.

Alternatives to Creative Cloud

You rarely need Creative Cloud to get the job done. Everything below runs on Windows, and none of it needs a rolling contract:

Instead of	Try	How you pay	Worth knowing
Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign	Affinity by Canva	Free	Photo, vector and page-layout tools in one app; opens Photoshop files. Its AI tools need a paid Canva Pro subscription.
Photoshop	GIMP	Free, open source	Powerful, but a steeper learning curve than Affinity.
Illustrator	Inkscape	Free, open source	Mature vector editor that works natively in SVG.
InDesign	Scribus	Free, open source	Page layout for print; less polished than Affinity.
Premiere Pro, After Effects	DaVinci Resolve	Free; Studio edition US$295 one-off	Editing, colour, effects and audio in one app. The free version has no watermark or time limit.
Photoshop and Premiere Pro, for home use	Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements 2026	One-off payment: US$99.99, or US$149.99 for both	Adobe's own non-subscription option. It's a three-year licence that doesn't renew – after that, it stops working.
Acrobat Pro	PDF-XChange Editor or Editor Plus	Perpetual licence from US$56 or US$72	Includes a year of updates and keeps working if you don't renew. Windows only; the free version covers a lot.
Acrobat Pro	Adobe Acrobat Pro 2024	One-off payment for a three-year licence	Desktop only, no cloud or AI features, and it doesn't auto-renew.
Lightroom	darktable	Free, open source	Raw processing and photo cataloguing.
Audition	Audacity	Free, open source	Recording and editing audio.
Media Encoder	HandBrake	Free, open source	Converts and compresses video.

Microsoft (Microsoft 365 Personal and Family)

From January 2025, Microsoft added Copilot and other new features to Microsoft 365 Personal and Family at no extra cost for the rest of each customer's term. At renewal, customers were rolled onto a plan with those features at a higher price unless they chose otherwise. Existing customers were offered a time-limited option to move to a "Classic" plan with the old features at the old price – £25 a year cheaper on annual plans.

In the UK: the CMA opened an investigation on 27 July 2026 into whether Microsoft's messages before renewal gave customers the information they needed, including the difference in price. No finding has been made.

Elsewhere: Australia's competition regulator, the ACCC, took Microsoft to court in October 2025. It alleges around 2.7 million subscribers were told their choice was to pay more or cancel, while the Classic plan only surfaced once they started cancelling. Italy's competition authority is running a separate investigation. Microsoft has said it is reviewing the claims. Microsoft is on this list for Microsoft 365 only; its Xbox memberships were changed after a CMA investigation in 2022.

If you're a customer: check which plan you are actually on and what it will cost at renewal. If you don't use Copilot, look for the cheaper option – and note that, according to the ACCC's case, the cancellation steps can reveal choices the renewal email doesn't mention.

Alternatives to Microsoft 365 Personal and Family

If you mainly use Word and Excel on one PC, you may not need a subscription at all:

Instead of	Try	How you pay	Worth knowing
Microsoft 365 Personal or Family	Office Home 2024	One-off £129.99	Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote on one PC, for non-commercial use. No 1 TB OneDrive or Copilot, and updates end in October 2029.
Microsoft 365 Personal or Family	Office Home & Business 2024	One-off £249.99	Adds Outlook and the right to use it for work. There's no upgrade discount – the next version is full price.
Microsoft 365 Personal or Family	LibreOffice	Free, open source	A full desktop suite that opens and saves Word, Excel and PowerPoint files; complex layouts can shift.

TeamViewer

TeamViewer hasn't been found to have broken the law; the problem is what its terms allow. Its licence agreement sets a 12-month term that renews automatically for another 12 months unless you give notice at least 28 days before the term ends, and it excludes ordinary termination during the term. Cancellations have to be made in writing, through a support ticket. Miss the window and TeamViewer's support staff have told customers, on its own community forum, that the renewal invoice stands.

Some of those invoices have ended up with collection agencies. In 2022 IT Pro reported a German customer being chased by a collection agency over a renewal they said they had opted out of, and in 2026 users on Reddit described similar pursuits, with fees added on top of the original bill.

TeamViewer's position is that auto-renewal exists so business-critical connections don't suddenly stop, that it sells licences to professionals and businesses, and that its free version covers personal use. That also means most of the consumer protections in this article won't reach its customers. It says renewal reminders usually go out around six weeks ahead, depending on the country, and a US federal court in California has rejected a challenge to its auto-renewal terms.

If you're a customer: give written notice of non-renewal the day you buy. The licence still runs to the end of the term; it just won't roll over without a decision from you.

AnyDesk

AnyDesk hasn't been found to have broken the law either – again, it is the terms. Its licences are annual only, with the full year charged upfront. Bought through its online shop, auto-renewal is on by default, and you must cancel at least 30 days before the licence expires or it renews for another year. AnyDesk's own help pages say its reminder email arrives 30 days before expiry – the same day the cancellation window closes.

If you're a customer: switch off renewal in my.anydesk as soon as the licence is active, then renew deliberately if you still want it.

Alternatives to TeamViewer and AnyDesk

For most people and small teams, remote access doesn't need an annual contract:

Instead of	Try	How you pay	Worth knowing
TeamViewer or AnyDesk	Quick Assist	Free, built into Windows 10 and 11	Good for helping family or colleagues who are sitting at their keyboard.
TeamViewer or AnyDesk	Chrome Remote Desktop	Free	Simple access to your own computers through a Google account.
TeamViewer or AnyDesk	Windows Remote Desktop	Included with Windows Pro	Built in for reaching your own PCs. Never expose it directly to the internet – use it over a VPN.
TeamViewer or AnyDesk	RustDesk	Free, open source; Pro licences billed yearly and don't auto-renew	Can run on your own server. Best for IT teams comfortable managing one.

Remote-access tools are a favourite of scammers. Never let someone who cold-calls you connect to your computer, whichever tool they ask you to install.

NordVPN (Nord Security)

Since 2024, customers have filed proposed class actions against Nord Security, the company behind NordVPN, NordPass and NordLocker, in several US states including New York, North Carolina, Colorado, Illinois, Virginia and Connecticut. They allege that auto-renewal isn't clearly disclosed at sign-up, that customers are charged well before their term ends, and that cancelling means working through several layers of account menus. NordVPN says its auto-renewal practices are clear and straightforward, and none of the claims has been proven. ExpressVPN and Surfshark each face a similar suit in the US.

If you're a customer: VPN deals often renew at a much higher price than the introductory offer. Turn off auto-renewal after you buy and check the renewal price before the term ends.

Alternatives to NordVPN

Disclosure: IT Pro Expert is a Proton partner. We've listed another option alongside it.

Instead of	Try	How you pay	Worth knowing
NordVPN	Proton VPN	Free plan; paid plans monthly, yearly or two-yearly, with a 30-day money-back guarantee	Swiss-based, with open-source apps. The cheapest prices need a one- or two-year prepayment and can renew at a higher rate – choose monthly if you want no commitment.
NordVPN	Mullvad VPN	€5 a month, flat	Nothing to cancel: you add time when you want it, and unused time can be refunded. No email address needed to sign up.

Services and memberships

Uber (Uber One)

The FTC sued Uber in April 2025 over its Uber One membership, and in December 2025 21 US states and the District of Columbia joined the case. The complaint alleges people were charged without consent, billed before free trials ended and denied promised savings, and that cancelling could take up to 23 screens and 32 actions. Uber denies it and says its processes follow the law. The case is ongoing.

JustAnswer

On 13 January 2026 the FTC sued JustAnswer and its chief executive personally. It alleges the site advertised expert help for a $1 or $5 "join" fee, but that paying it also enrolled people in a monthly subscription of $28 to $125, disclosed only in small print near the payment button. JustAnswer says it engaged constructively with the FTC for nearly three years and is confident in its position. The case is ongoing.

It is worth knowing about because JustAnswer often turns up in search results for everyday tech questions – one person featured by AARP found it while searching for help setting up a payment app. It runs a UK site as well as its US one.

If you've used it: check your card statement for a monthly charge after what you thought was a one-off payment, cancel in your account, and cancel the recurring payment with your card provider.

LA Fitness (Fitness International)

In August 2025 the FTC sued Fitness International, which runs LA Fitness, Esporta Fitness, City Sports Club and Club Studio in the US. It alleges members could only cancel in person or by post, that the online route to the cancellation form needed details such as a key tag number that many members didn't have to hand, and that in-club cancellations were limited to one designated employee. The FTC says the result was hundreds of millions of dollars in unwanted fees. Fitness International denies it and says it offers an online option. The case is ongoing; the chain has no UK clubs, but the tactics will be familiar to anyone who has tried to leave a gym.

Apple (iCloud+)

This is a different kind of trap. Cancelling iCloud+ isn't the problem; leaving iCloud is. Which? has brought a £3 billion collective claim at the Competition Appeal Tribunal, alleging Apple abused its dominant position by restricting which files iPhone and iPad users can store with rival cloud services, tying iCloud to its devices, and using prompts and system design to steer people into paying for it. The tribunal allowed the claim to proceed in June 2026 on behalf of up to 39.7 million UK iCloud users, with a trial expected in 2028. Apple says the claims are unfounded and that no customer is required to use iCloud.

If you're a customer: UK users who used iCloud between November 2018 and June 2026 are covered by the claim unless they opt out. Details are at cloudclaim.co.uk

The Times (digital subscriptions)

You can subscribe online in a minute, often on a £1 introductory offer. Leaving is different. The Times' subscription terms tell customers to cancel by calling customer services, and after any minimum term to do it at least two days before the next billing date. Customer reviews throughout 2026 describe phone-only cancellation, long queues, retention pitches, and full-price charges landing when the offer ends. No regulator has taken action, and cancelling by phone isn't unlawful today – but it is exactly what the January 2027 rules target: if you sign up online, you should be able to cancel online.

If you're a customer: within 14 days of signing up, you can cancel in writing – the law lets you use any clear statement, not just a phone call. After that, call to cancel and note the date, time and name of the person you spoke to.

O2 (Virgin Media O2)

Since January 2025, Ofcom's rules have made mobile and broadband providers state annual price rises in pounds and pence when you sign up. In October 2025 O2 told existing customers that the rise due from April 2026 would be £2.50 a month instead of the £1.80 written into their contracts – about 40% more. That is allowed, because customers were given 30 days to leave without penalty, but Ofcom said it was disappointed and that the move went against the spirit of its rules. The government has since asked Ofcom to review them. O2 says it has been fully transparent and that the money goes into its network.

The trap here is inertia: a right to leave only helps if you use it within 30 days, and if you have a handset on the same deal you may still have to pay off the phone. ISPreview reported that Virgin Media and BT Group brands, including EE and Plusnet, had done something similar with broadband.

If you're a customer: read every price-change letter. If the rise is more than your contract said, you normally have 30 days from the notice to leave penalty-free – compare deals before that window closes.

Business phone systems

Some of the worst traps in this article aren't software at all. BBC investigations in 2025 heard from hundreds of small businesses – care homes, shops, tradespeople – who say they were sold phone systems on the promise of a low monthly price, then found they had signed long finance leases with a separate company. Because these are business contracts, there is no statutory cooling-off period, and when the lease is signed by a limited company it generally falls outside the Financial Conduct Authority's reach.

4Com

The Bournemouth-based provider featured in BBC investigations in July and November 2025. More than half of the small businesses that contacted the BBC for the first report were 4Com customers. One graphic designer described a seven-year finance deal for five phones and software: his bills rose from just over £200 a month to more than £550 when a two-year introductory offer ended, and when he complained he was offered an "upgrade" that tied him into another seven-year contract. He now faces £54,432 over ten years. Independent experts shown 4Com contracts called some of the pricing grossly inflated – one deal came to £40,391 over seven years for four phones they said could be bought outright for under £2,000. In a secretly recorded sales meeting, a salesperson claimed the monthly price was fixed and only admitted otherwise when questioned.

In November 2025 the owners of a Chesterfield care home told the BBC they believed they had agreed a fixed £329 a month over five years, but the contract was for seven years and included a rental agreement with a separate finance company. Ofcom said providers must give small businesses clear contract information and that it can act where it sees widespread problems. The Federation of Small Businesses called for a cooling-off period for small firms.

4Com strongly denies wrongdoing. It says the salesperson in the recording no longer works for it, that its sales checks and staff training exceed industry standards, and, in the November cases, that it found no evidence customers had been misled about the price, the contract structure or the availability of a cooling-off period.

HiHi and Hii Comm: how they connect to 4Com

The similar names cause real confusion, so here is what the record shows. HiHi is the phone system 4Com sells: 4Com markets itself as HiHi's platinum reseller and describes developing the handset. If your phones say HiHi, check whether your contract and lease came through 4Com.

Hii Comm is different. HII Communications Ltd is a separate company based in Lincoln. In September 2023, 4Com announced it had bought 497 of Hii Comm's business customers, with Hii Comm continuing to trade on its own. Hii Comm was itself the subject of a BBC undercover investigation in November 2024. According to law firms that contributed to or have commented on the report, it raised concerns about customers not realising they had signed a lease with a third-party finance company, contracts much longer than sales staff had described, and total costs far higher than first quoted. We could not find a published response from Hii Comm.

Getting out, and staying out

If you're in a contract like this: get every document – the telecoms contract and the separate finance agreement – and note who the finance company is. Complain in writing to both. Businesses with ten or fewer employees can usually take an unresolved telecoms complaint to an Ofcom-approved dispute scheme, though the BBC found most such cases weren't upheld because the finance was outside the scheme's reach. Before paying any settlement figure, take independent legal advice: what a salesperson told you can sometimes be grounds to challenge a contract.

Before you sign anything: ask who the finance company is, what the total cost is over the whole term, and what happens when any introductory discount ends. Take the paperwork away to read it. A salesperson who needs your signature today is a reason to walk away.

What to watch out for

"Annual, billed monthly". A monthly price on a yearly contract. Look for "annual" or "12-month commitment" next to any monthly figure.
Notice periods before renewal. 28 or 30 days is common. The date that matters is the notice deadline, not the renewal date.
Reminders that arrive late or go to the wrong inbox. A reminder sent on deadline day, or to someone who has left the business, is no reminder at all.
Introductory prices. The second year is often charged at a higher "regular" price. Check the renewal price before you buy, not after.
Tiny "join" fees and free trials. A $1 fee or a free trial that quietly starts a monthly or annual plan is the most expensive way to forget a date.
Auto-renewal switched on at checkout. Turn it off the day you buy. You can always renew on purpose.
Plans hidden in the exit route. Cheaper or "classic" plans sometimes appear only once you start to cancel.
Cancellation by ticket, phone, post or in person only. If you joined with one click and can only leave another way, keep proof of everything you send.
Business details on a personal purchase. Adding a company name or VAT number can cost you your consumer rights. If it's for you, buy it as you.
A cheap phone deal with a lease behind it. A low monthly price can hide a five- or seven-year equipment lease with a finance company. Ask who the lender is and the total cost before you sign.
New card, same payments. Replacing your bank card isn't a reliable way out – card networks can pass your new details to merchants that take recurring payments.

Your rights in the UK today

Until the new rules arrive, you rely on existing law. It helps more than most people expect – if you are buying as an individual.

The 14-day cancellation window

Buy a service online or by phone and the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 generally give you 14 days to change your mind. There are catches. If you asked for a service to start straight away, you can be charged for what you have used. For digital content, you can lose the right once downloading or streaming begins, provided you agreed to that and acknowledged it.

Hidden and unfair terms

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, an unfair term in a consumer contract doesn't bind you. Terms that set the main price can only escape a fairness assessment if they are transparent and prominent – a fee buried in small print doesn't qualify. That is the law behind the CMA's Adobe investigation. Since April 2025 the CMA can decide for itself whether consumer law has been broken and fine a company up to 10% of its global turnover, without going to court first.

Stopping the payment

If a subscription is paid by card, you can cancel the recurring payment – a "continuous payment authority" – directly with your bank or card provider. Under Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules it must stop the payments when you ask, and it can't insist you go to the company first. Anything taken after that is an unauthorised payment and should be refunded. If your bank won't, complain to it, then take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

One caution: stopping the payment doesn't end the contract. If the company believes you still owe money, it can pursue you for it. Cancel with the company as well, and keep proof.

Refund commitments already on the record

McAfee, Norton and Microsoft (for Xbox) have all given the CMA commitments on pro-rata refunds after an auto-renewal. If you are dealing with any of them, quote it.

January 2027: the subscription trap rules

The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 contains a full regime for consumer subscriptions. It was due to start in spring 2026, slipped to autumn 2026, then to spring 2027. On 9 August 2026 the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, brought it forward to January 2027. Once it is in force, businesses will have to:

give you clear key information before you sign up;
send reminders before a free or discounted trial ends and before longer contracts renew;
make leaving straightforward, rather than an obstacle course;
honour two 14-day cooling-off periods – one when you first sign up, and a renewal cooling-off period after a trial ends or after a contract of 12 months or more auto-renews.

Cancel during a renewal cooling-off period and you are owed a proportionate refund, and that right can't be waived. If a business fails to tell you about your cooling-off rights, the window stays open until 14 days after it puts that right, up to a maximum of 12 months. Terms that make you pay for a renewal before the renewal date will have no effect.

Two limits are worth knowing. The regime covers consumers, not businesses. And whether mid-term exit fees like Adobe's are fair is a separate question, which the CMA is testing now under existing law. The start date has slipped three times already, and the detailed regulations still have to be in place before it can begin.

When it has to be a business purchase

Business software makes annual commitments routine, and the law won't unpick them for you. Here is how six of the biggest platforms handle it, going by their own terms and help pages:

Salesforce. Subscriptions renew automatically for another year unless either side gives written notice at least 30 days before the term ends. Email counts as written notice.
HubSpot. Professional and Enterprise plans need a 12-month commitment. You can pay monthly, but you are still committed for the year, and turning off auto-renewal only cancels the subscription on the renewal date.
Zoom. Genuine monthly plans exist, but so does "annual billed monthly". A customer on Zoom's own forum reported in July 2026 that cancelling one only stopped the next renewal, with monthly payments still due until the year was up.
DocuSign. Sold month to month or as an annual plan. Annual plans renew by default, and a refund is only available if you cancel within 30 days of the first term. We found no early termination fee.
Microsoft 365 (business licences). Under Microsoft's current licensing, annual-term subscriptions can be cancelled or reduced only within seven days of purchase or renewal. After that, you pay for every seat until the term ends. Monthly-term subscriptions, which you can cut back each month, cost 20% more.
Google Workspace. On the Annual/Fixed-Term Plan you can't reduce licences until renewal, and cancelling early means paying the full commitment. The Flexible Plan lets you remove users or cancel at any time, but costs about 20% more per user.

Two areas where small firms do get some help. Ofcom bans automatically renewing landline and broadband contracts for businesses with ten or fewer employees. And after its review of the card-payments market, the Payment Systems Regulator capped card-machine lease and rental contracts from the 14 biggest card-payment providers at 18 months, with no long rollovers after that. Neither protection covers everyone, so check the contract before you sign.

Alternatives without the lock-in

Disclosure: IT Pro Expert is a partner of Microsoft and Proton. Every option below either bills monthly, costs nothing, or can be run on your own servers:

Instead of	Try	How you pay	Worth knowing
Salesforce or HubSpot	Zoho CRM	Free plan for up to 3 users; paid plans monthly or yearly	A full-featured CRM that is part of a wider business suite.
Salesforce or HubSpot	Pipedrive	Monthly plans available	A simple, visual sales pipeline built for small teams.
Salesforce or HubSpot	SuiteCRM	Free, open source	You host it yourself – budget for a server and someone to maintain it.
HubSpot Professional or Enterprise	HubSpot Starter on a monthly commitment	Monthly	Starter plans can be monthly; Professional and Enterprise plans can't.
Zoom "annual billed monthly"	Zoom's monthly plan	Monthly	The same product, and you can leave at the end of any month.
Zoom	Jitsi Meet	Free, open source	Video meetings in the browser; can be self-hosted.
DocuSign	SignWell	Free for 3 documents a month; paid plans monthly	No contract and no cancellation fees.
DocuSign	Documenso	Free hosted tier for 5 documents a month; open source	Can also be self-hosted.
Google Workspace Annual plan	Google Workspace Flexible Plan	Monthly, per user	Add or remove users at any time; costs about 20% more.
Google Workspace or Microsoft 365	Proton Workspace	From US$12.99 per user per month on annual billing; 30-day money-back guarantee	Mail, calendar, drive, documents, spreadsheets, video meetings, VPN and password manager, end-to-end encrypted. Check its office apps cover what you use.
Microsoft 365 annual term	Microsoft 365 monthly term	Monthly, about 20% more	Reduce seats each month instead of being locked in for a year.
Microsoft 365, desktop apps only	Office Home & Business 2024	One-off £249.99 per PC	Licensed for business use, but no business email, Teams or cloud storage.

None of this is unusual for business software, and most of it is written into the terms – which is exactly why it catches out people who never read them. The discipline has to come from you:

Keep one register of every subscription: owner, seats, term end, notice deadline and billing contact.
Put the notice deadline in the calendar, with a warning a month before it – not the renewal date.
Send renewal and billing emails to a shared mailbox, so they don't disappear with a leaver's account.
Where the terms allow it, serve non-renewal notice when you buy, then renew as a decision rather than a default.
Negotiate before signing: shorter notice periods, no auto-renewal, capped price rises and the right to reduce seats at renewal.
Match the term to the seat: annual licences for stable headcount, monthly ones for staff who come and go.
Right-size before every renewal. Paying for seats nobody uses is a trap you set yourself.

Keeping track of licences and renewals is part of running IT properly – see our IT support services.

Who is investigating

UK – Competition and Markets Authority. Open cases into Adobe (since March 2026) and Microsoft (since July 2026), using the direct enforcement powers it gained in April 2025. Earlier action secured changes from McAfee, Norton, Microsoft (Xbox), Sony and Nintendo.
UK – Ofcom. Fined Virgin Media £28 million in July 2026 after finding it made cancelling unreasonably difficult between January 2022 and September 2024. Virgin Media settled and says it has since overhauled its customer service. Ofcom has also criticised O2's 2026 mid-contract price rise and is reviewing its price-rise rules.
UK – government. The subscription regime under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act, now due in January 2027.
US – FTC and Department of Justice. Settlements with Amazon ($2.5 billion, 2025), Match Group ($14 million, 2025), Adobe ($150 million, 2026) and Shutterstock ($35 million, 2026), plus a $7.5 million settlement between HelloFresh and California prosecutors in 2025. Live cases continue against Uber (backed by 21 states and the District of Columbia), JustAnswer and LA Fitness's operator. The FTC's "click to cancel" rule was struck down on procedural grounds in July 2025 and the agency has started work on a replacement; meanwhile the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act still applies.
Australia – ACCC. Federal Court proceedings against Microsoft over Microsoft 365 renewals.
Italy – competition authority. A separate investigation into Microsoft over subscription renewals.

How to get out

Find the dates
Log in and note the plan name, the term end date, the notice deadline, the renewal price and how you pay. Screenshot all of it. If you can't find the terms, the order confirmation email usually links to them.
Switch off renewal now
Don't wait for the deadline. Turn off auto-renewal in your account, or send written notice of non-renewal today by whatever method the terms require, and keep the ticket number or reply.
Ask for a refund if it has already renewed
As a consumer, cite your 14-day cancellation right where it applies, and any pro-rata refund commitment the company gave the CMA. If the renewal terms were buried or you were never told the new price, say so: unfair or hidden terms may not bind you. From January 2027, add the renewal cooling-off period.
Stop the payment
Tell your card provider you are cancelling the continuous payment authority; it must stop it. If you pay through the App Store or Google Play, cancel there – the developer usually can't do it for you.
Complain in writing, then escalate
Send a formal complaint with dates and evidence. If that goes nowhere, call the Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 0808 223 1133, which passes reports to Trading Standards. For a disputed sum, the small claims court is a realistic option.
Don't ignore a debt collector
If an invoice is passed to a collection agency, dispute it in writing and ask for the contract and how the sum was calculated. Don't pay a disputed amount before you have checked where you stand, and never ignore court papers.

The best exit is not to go in

The cheapest way out of a subscription trap is never to sign up to one.

Where you have a choice, give the companies on this list a miss. Pick providers that offer genuine monthly terms, let you cancel online in a couple of clicks, and refund you after a renewal you didn't want – and check all three before you pay, not after. If one of these companies is unavoidable, write down the renewal date, the notice deadline and the cancellation route on the day you sign up, and switch off auto-renewal straight away.

Caught in a renewal you didn't want?

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Sources

This article reflects the position at the end of September 2026. Allegations in open cases are unproven, and the settlements and undertakings described were agreed without admissions of wrongdoing. It is general information, not legal advice.