Maine's Automatic Renewal Law: What Subscribers Should Know

Maine's rules sit in Title 10, chapter 205-B of the Maine Revised Statutes, now headed "Automatic Subscription or Health Club Membership Renewal." The chapter has two sections: 10 M.R.S. section 1210-C, which sets the substantive duties, and section 1210-D, which handles violations and enforcement. It was enacted by Public Law 2019, chapter 175, and substantially rewritten by Public Law 2025, chapter 376, approved by the Governor on June 20, 2025.

The most important thing to understand about Maine's law is that it is a list, not a general rule. An "automatic subscription or health club membership renewal" means an offer or agreement to provide any of the following for a specified time and price that renews automatically at the end of a definite term unless the consumer affirmatively acts to cancel: online magazines, journals and periodicals; online media players; mobile apps; social networking services; internet game services; online software; and health club memberships. A recurring charge outside those categories, such as a physical goods subscription box, is not governed by chapter 205-B.

The chapter draws a second line inside that list. An "extended automatic subscription or health club membership renewal" is one with a specified subscription term of 12 months or more that renews for a specified term of more than one month. Only these extended arrangements attract the advance renewal notice described below.

"Health club" covers establishments providing services meant to improve or maintain physical condition through exercise, including gyms, fitness centers, health studios and facilities offering equipment, classes or amenities such as pools, saunas or courts. It excludes establishments run by a nonprofit, a school or university, or a government body, businesses where health club services are incidental, and health care facilities as defined by Title 22, section 328, subsection 8. This page is general information about Maine's statute, not legal advice.

Section 1210-C, subsection 2 sets the entry requirements. A seller may not make an automatic subscription or health club membership renewal offer to a consumer in Maine unless it presents the consumer with a clear, conspicuous and easily accessible disclosure of all material terms of the renewal offer and of the methods the consumer may use to cancel.

That disclosure must include information on the amount and frequency of the subscription or membership charges and the seller's refund policy on cancellation. If the seller also gives a phone number for cancellation purposes, the number must be toll-free and must be prominently displayed in the disclosure.

Consent has to be affirmative and distinct from the rest of the sign-up flow. The seller must obtain the consumer's express consent to the automatic renewal before enrollment, through a check box, an electronic signature requirement, or another affirmative action agreeing to the renewal offer. And in marketing, offering or selling a subscription or membership with an automatic renewal, a seller may not make any misrepresentation of a material fact associated with that renewal offer.

Maine ties the exit to the entrance. The statute requires the seller to provide for cancellation of the subscription or health club membership by a consumer "using the same method and in the same manner by which the consumer initially agreed to the subscription or membership." In practice, a subscription bought on a website should be cancellable on that website, and a membership signed up for inside a mobile app should be cancellable there.

It is worth being precise about what the 2025 amendment did here, because the change cuts in an unexpected direction. The earlier version of subsection 2 required the seller to provide for cancellation "by any means of communicating information over a computer network" - an explicit online-cancellation mandate. Public Law 2025, chapter 376 struck that language and replaced it with the same-method, same-manner rule now in the statute, so Maine's cancellation duty tracks how you enrolled rather than guaranteeing an online route in every case.

The toll-free requirement is the other practical lever. If the seller offers a phone number as a route to cancellation, that number must be toll-free and prominently displayed in the disclosure.

Maine requires a pre-renewal reminder only for extended renewals, meaning arrangements with a specified subscription term of 12 months or more that renew for a specified term of more than one month. For ordinary month-to-month or short-term subscriptions inside the chapter's list, Maine requires no recurring renewal reminder at all; the up-front disclosure and express-consent rules carry the weight.

Where the reminder does apply, section 1210-C, subsection 3 says that no more than 30 days before the renewal date the seller must provide notice about the renewal, disclosing clearly and conspicuously that unless the consumer cancels the subscription or membership it will automatically renew, and where the consumer can obtain details regarding the renewal and cancellation procedure.

The timing rule was also rewritten in 2025. The earlier text required notice no less than 30 days and no more than 60 days before the cancellation deadline. The current text sets a single outer limit of 30 days before the renewal date, and that amended window applies to offers or agreements entered into or renewed on or after January 1, 2026.

Public Law 2025, chapter 376, carried as L.D. 1642 and Senate Paper 650 under the title "An Act to Protect Maine Consumers by Simplifying Subscription and Health Club Membership Cancellations," was enacted and signed by the Governor on June 20, 2025. As a non-emergency law of the 132nd Legislature's First Special Session it took effect on September 24, 2025, the general effective date printed on the session-law volume. Its reach is narrower than that date suggests, because its application section is explicit: notwithstanding section 1210-C, subsection 4, the act applies only to offers or agreements entered into or renewed on or after January 1, 2026. An agreement entered into before that date and not renewed since is still governed by the earlier version of the chapter.

The headline change is scope. Health club memberships were added to the covered list, supported by three new definitions of "health club," "health club membership" and "health club services." The disclosure rules were expanded to require the amount and frequency of charges, the refund policy on cancellation, and a toll-free, prominently displayed number where one is offered for cancelling. The cancellation standard was switched to the same-method rule, and the extended-renewal notice window was reset to no more than 30 days before the renewal date.

Enforcement was strengthened too. Section 1210-D gained a new subsection 3 directing the Attorney General to enforce the chapter and bring necessary actions, and authorising rules for enforcement, treated as routine technical rules under Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A. Because the package applies to agreements entered into or renewed on or after January 1, 2026, it is in force for new and renewing Maine subscriptions throughout 2026.

Section 1210-D provides that a violation of chapter 205-B is a violation of the Maine Unfair Trade Practices Act, at Title 5, chapter 10 of the Maine Revised Statutes. On top of the remedies that act authorises, a person found in violation based on unauthorized subscription or membership or other charges billed to or paid by a consumer is required to provide the consumer a refund or credit for three times the unauthorized amounts.

There is an escape hatch for genuine mistakes. Subsection 2 provides that an action may not be brought under the Unfair Trade Practices Act where a seller violated the chapter as the result of an error and provides a full refund or credit for all amounts billed to or paid by the consumer, running from the renewal date until the subscription is terminated or the next renewal notice is sent, whichever comes first.

Consumers who think a seller failed to disclose the terms, ignored the same-method cancellation rule, or skipped a required extended-renewal notice can bring the problem to the Maine Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division, which runs a free complaint and mediation service. Save the sign-up screen, the consent step, any renewal notice, and dated billing records. This page is general information about Maine law in 2026, not legal advice.