Arkansas's Automatic Renewal Law: What Subscribers Should Know

Arkansas's general automatic-renewal rules live at Arkansas Code section 4-86-112, "Automatic renewal and continuous service offers." The section did not exist before 2025. It was created by Act 652 of the 2025 regular session, which began as House Bill 1820, sponsored by Representative M. Brown and Senator M. McKee, and was approved on April 16, 2025.

The section reaches two kinds of recurring arrangement. An "automatic renewal" is a plan, arrangement, or contract provision that contains a free-to-pay conversion, or in which a paid subscription or purchasing agreement is automatically renewed at the end of a definite term for a subsequent term. A "continuous service" is the same, except that it simply continues until the consumer cancels. A "free-to-pay conversion" is a provision under which the customer gets goods or a service free for an initial period and then owes payment unless they cancel before that period ends.

The protections run to a "consumer," defined as an individual located in Arkansas who seeks or acquires, by purchase or lease, goods, services, money, or credit for personal, family, or household purposes, so business purchases sit outside the section. Whole categories of provider are excluded too: those subject to the jurisdiction of the Bank Commissioner, the Securities Commissioner, the Insurance Commissioner, the Arkansas Public Service Commission, or the Federal Communications Commission (though providers of satellite digital radio services are pulled back in); municipal utilities; a service provider, affiliate, or subsidiary doing business under a franchise issued by the state or a local government; and entities regulated by the Division of Arkansas State Police under the Private Security Agency, Private Investigator, and School Security Licensing and Credentialing Act. This page is general information about the statute, not legal advice.

The statute defines a package of "offer terms" that must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously: that the agreement will continue until the consumer cancels; the cancellation policy; the recurring charges, with a statement that the amount may change and, if known, what it will change to; the length of the term, unless the consumer chooses it; and any minimum purchase obligation. "Clear and conspicuous" means larger or contrasting type, font or color, or text set off by symbols that clearly call attention to it; for audio, a volume and cadence sufficient to be readily audible and understandable.

Those terms must appear before the agreement is fulfilled and in visual proximity to the request for consent, or, for a verbal offer, in temporal proximity to it. If the offer includes a free gift or trial, it must also explain clearly what price will be charged once the trial ends or how the pricing will change.

The business may not charge a card or a third-party account without first obtaining consent to the agreement containing the offer terms, may not fail to obtain express consent, and may not include contract information that undermines that consent. It also may not misrepresent, expressly or by implication, any material fact related to the transaction, including whether an automatic renewal or continuous service is part of the deal. It must send a retainable acknowledgment carrying the offer terms, the cancellation policy and how to cancel, and where a free gift or trial is involved must explain how to cancel before payment is due. Verification of consent must be kept for at least three years, or one year after the contract ends, whichever period is longer.

A business making one of these offers must provide a toll-free telephone number, an email address, a postal address if it bills the consumer directly, or another cost-effective, timely, easy-to-use cancellation mechanism described in the acknowledgment. Where cancellation is offered by phone, it must answer calls promptly during normal business hours, and if a consumer leaves a voicemail asking to cancel, it must process the cancellation or call back within one business day.

Online enrollment triggers an online exit. A business that lets consumers accept the offer online must allow them to terminate exclusively online, at will, either through a prominently located direct link or button, which may sit inside a customer account or profile or within device or user settings, or through an immediately accessible termination email the business formats and provides. A consumer with an account may be required to log in first, but someone unable to authenticate online cannot be blocked from cancelling offline by another permitted method.

Retention offers are allowed but cannot become an obstacle. Online, a business may display a discount or information about the effect of cancellation only if it simultaneously displays a prominently located, continuously and proximately displayed link or button reading "click to cancel" or words to that effect, and must then promptly process the cancellation. By phone, it must first clearly tell the consumer that cancellation can be completed at any time by saying so. Cancellation must also be available in the medium used for the transaction that activated the subscription, or the medium the consumer is accustomed to using with the business.

Arkansas requires advance notice in two defined situations. The first is a free gift or trial lasting more than 31 days, or an offer accepted at a promotional price that applied for more than 31 days: notice must arrive at least 3 days and at most 21 days before that period expires. That rule does not apply where the consumer did not contract electronically and the business holds no email address, phone number, or other electronic means of reaching them. The second is an initial term of one year or longer that renews automatically, where notice is due at least 15 days and not more than 45 days before renewal. If both would apply, only the one-year notice is required.

Whichever notice applies, it must clearly and conspicuously state that the subscription will renew unless cancelled; the length and any additional terms of the renewal period; the amount or range of costs and the frequency of charges; one or more cancellation methods; and contact information for the business. A notice sent electronically must include a link to the cancellation process, or another reasonably accessible electronic method that directs the consumer there.

Two further duties sit alongside these. A business must send an annual reminder on an annual agreement, using the medium that activated the subscription or the one the customer is accustomed to, disclosing the product or service, the frequency and amount of charges, and the means to cancel. And if the terms materially change, or the fee under existing terms changes, it must give clear and conspicuous notice with retainable cancellation information, with fee-change notice due no less than 7 and no more than 30 days before the new fee takes effect.

Section 4-86-112 is new law rather than a rewrite of an older provision. Act 652 directed that Arkansas Code Title 4, Chapter 86, Subchapter 1 "is amended to add an additional section," and that added section is 4-86-112, "Automatic renewal and continuous service offers." The section number therefore did not exist in the Arkansas Code before 2025.

The act carries no emergency clause and no separate effective-date section, so it took effect on the general effective date for the 2025 regular session's legislation rather than on the day it was signed. The Arkansas Senate explains that most laws from the 2025 regular session become effective 90 days after the legislature adjourns sine die, which it did on May 5, 2025, and the Senate's own reporting on other 2025 acts gives August 5, 2025 as the day those acts took effect.

The statute also fixes when each duty attaches. As a rule the requirements apply before the initial order is completed, but the acknowledgment, the pre-renewal notice and the notice-timing rules may be fulfilled afterwards, the material-change and fee-change notices must come before the change is implemented, and the reminder is fulfilled annually.

Section 4-86-112 routes enforcement through Arkansas's general consumer-protection statute. A violation constitutes an unfair or deceptive act or practice as defined by the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, section 4-88-101 et seq., and all remedies, penalties, and authority granted to the Attorney General under that act are available for enforcing the automatic-renewal section. The enforcement subsection speaks to the Attorney General's powers; it does not itself set out a separate consumer remedy.

Consumers who believe a business failed to disclose renewal terms, made cancellation unreasonably difficult, or skipped a required notice can file a consumer complaint with the Arkansas Attorney General's office. Keeping records helps: screenshots of the sign-up and cancellation screens, the acknowledgment email, any renewal notice you did or did not receive, and dated billing statements.

This page describes Arkansas law as it stands in 2026 and is general information rather than legal advice. How the statute applies turns on the facts, so review the primary sources below or consult a licensed Arkansas attorney.