Can I Cancel a UK Subscription Within 14 Days?

The right sits in the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, which cover distance and off-premises contracts — the ones entered into online, over the phone, in an app, or away from the trader's business premises. Regulation 29(1) says the consumer may cancel such a contract at any time in the cancellation period 'without giving any reason, and without incurring any liability except under these provisions'. Regulation 30 fixes the length: for a service, and for digital content not supplied on a tangible medium, 'the cancellation period ends at the end of 14 days after the day on which the contract is entered into'; for goods it ends 14 days after the day they come into your physical possession. Join or subscribe in person at the trader's own premises and the regulations do not bite at all, so there is no statutory cooling-off period to use. None of this depends on the trader being British: the rules attach to the contract you made as a UK consumer, so a global streaming service selling into the UK is covered in the same way as a local one.

Digital content is where UK subscribers lose the right without noticing. Regulation 37(1) says the trader must not begin supplying digital content before the end of the cancellation period unless the consumer has given express consent and 'has acknowledged that the right to cancel the contract under regulation 29(1) will be lost'. Regulation 37(2) then states that the consumer ceases to have that right once supply has begun after the consent and acknowledgement were given. In practice that is the tickbox a streaming service, ebook shop or app store puts in front of you so you can start watching, reading or downloading straight away. If you were asked and you agreed, pressing play ends the 14 days; if you were never asked to acknowledge the loss, the right has not been extinguished.

Services are treated more gently. Regulation 36 stops a trader beginning a service during the cancellation period unless you made an express request for it, and where you then cancel you pay a proportionate amount for what was actually supplied, calculated on the total price under the contract or, if that total is excessive, on the market value of the service. You pay nothing for that period if the trader failed to give you the required information about the cancellation right, or if the service was not supplied at your request. One carve-out is worth reading your contract against: regulation 28(1)(h) takes out contracts for 'the supply of accommodation, transport of goods, vehicle rental services, catering or services related to leisure activities, if the contract provides for a specific date or period of performance'.

Two practical points. If the trader never gave you the information about your right to cancel, regulation 31 extends the deadline — where the information is supplied within 12 months the period ends 14 days after you receive it, and otherwise it ends 12 months after the day it would have ended under regulation 30. And cancelling the contract is not the same as stopping the money: tell the trader in a way that leaves a dated record, then deal with the payment separately. A recurring card payment is covered at /answers/what-is-continuous-payment-authority and a bank mandate at /answers/how-do-i-cancel-a-direct-debit-uk. If you subscribed through an app store, the store is the merchant that bills you, so the cancellation itself happens in your store account.