Maryland's Automatic Renewal Law: What Subscribers Should Know

Maryland's automatic renewal rules live in the Commercial Law Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland at section 14-1329. They were enacted in 2025 by two identical cross-filed bills, Senate Bill 49 and House Bill 107, which became Chapters 204 and 205 of the 2025 Laws of Maryland. Senate Bill 49 was approved by the Governor on April 22, 2025, and Section 2 of the Act sets the effective date at June 1, 2026. If you go looking for the text, note that both bills numbered the new rules 14-1328, but Chapter 194 of 2025 had already claimed that number for an unrelated provision about clauses that shorten the time to sue on a consumer contract, so the automatic renewal rules were codified at 14-1329 instead.

The statute defines "automatic renewal" as any contract, plan, or agreement between a consumer and a seller in which a paid subscription or purchasing agreement is automatically renewed for a subsequent term. That definition is broad: as enacted it is not limited to long contracts or to any particular industry, so ordinary streaming plans, memberships, software subscriptions, and recurring product shipments can all fall within it. (An earlier version of the bill would have limited the definition to agreements renewed at the end of a definite term of more than one month; the chaptered act shows that limit struck by amendment before passage, and it does not appear in the codified section.)

Subsection (f) carves out businesses whose contract renewal practices are subject to Maryland Insurance Administration rules, entities regulated under the Maryland Service Contracts and Consumer Products Guaranty Act, and services regulated by the Maryland Public Service Commission, the FCC, or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Subsection (e) separately deems a business compliant if it follows the contract renewal procedures established by the state or federal agency that regulates it, or if it is licensed under Title 18 of the Business Occupations and Professions Article, the title governing security systems services. This page is general information about the statute, not legal advice.

Before the subscription or purchasing agreement is fulfilled, a business must present the terms of the automatic renewal offer in a clear and conspicuous manner and place them in visual proximity to the request for your consent. If the offer is conveyed orally, the terms have to be given at the same time as the request for consent, rather than buried in a follow-up message.

Those terms must include either the price charged after the initial term ends or how the agreement will change at that point. The business must also present an easily accessible disclosure of the methods you can use to cancel, and must let you terminate the offer in a way that does not unreasonably delay, hinder, or obstruct you. Offers opening with a free gift or trial carry an extra duty under subsection (b)(2): a clear and conspicuous explanation of the price charged after the trial ends and of how the pricing will change.

There is also a separate consent rule for card billing. Under subsection (d), a business making an automatic renewal offer with an initial definite term of more than one month may not automatically charge your credit card unless clear and conspicuous notice is provided and you consent to the automatic charge.

Section 14-1329(b)(3) is the heart of the law for most subscribers. A business must give a consumer who accepts an automatic renewal offer a cost-effective, timely, and easy-to-use mechanism to cancel the automatic renewal, to avoid being charged or charged an increased amount, and to immediately stop any recurring charges.

The mechanism has to clear two baseline tests: it must be at least as easy to use as the mechanism you used to consent, and it must be available through the same medium. Beyond that, the statute describes each channel. Cancellation by electronic medium must be easy to find, must not require interaction with a live or virtual representative unless you interacted with one to sign up, and must include either a prominently placed direct link or button to initiate the cancellation process, which may sit in a customer account or profile or in device or user settings, or an immediately accessible termination email the business has formatted and provided for you to send without additional information.

Cancellation by telephone call must be promptly performed through calls received at a telephone number that is answered or records messages and is made available during normal business hours. In-person cancellation must be performed in a manner similar to the in-person method you used to consent, which may include mail to a postal address if the business bills you there, and subsection (b)(3)(iii) requires the electronic and telephone alternatives to be made available for an in-person cancellation as well. A business may require you to enter account information or otherwise authenticate your account online before online termination, but if you are unwilling or unable to do so, you may not be precluded from cancelling through another method the business provides in a clear and conspicuous manner.

Maryland requires advance notice before a renewal and fixes windows for two situations. Under subsection (c)(2), where an offer includes a free gift or trial lasting more than 14 days, notice is due not less than 3 and not more than 21 days before the date the automatic renewal is scheduled to take effect. Under subsection (c)(3), where you accepted an offer with an initial term of at least one year, notice is due not less than 15 and not more than 45 days before that date.

The notice must be clear and conspicuous and must state that the offer will automatically renew unless you cancel; the duration and any additional terms of the renewal period, including the price charged after the renewal or free trial ends or how the agreement will change; the various methods by which you may cancel; and contact information for the business. If sent electronically, it must carry a link that directs you to the cancellation process, or another reasonably accessible electronic method that does so if no link exists.

Note what the statute does not do. Outside the trial and one-year situations, subsection (c)(1) requires the notice to be provided before the end of the automatic renewal but sets no fixed day-count window, so a short monthly plan does not get the guaranteed reminder period an annual plan does.

This is new law. Maryland had no general automatic-renewal statute of this kind before Chapters 204 and 205 of 2025, and the requirements described here first applied on June 1, 2026. One quirk is worth knowing if you check the text yourself: as of late August 2026 the General Assembly's statute portal still displayed a "NOT IN EFFECT" banner above section 14-1329 reading "takes effect June 1, 2026 per Chapters 204 and 205 of 2025." That banner names the same date Section 2 of the Act sets; it describes how the portal labels the section rather than a different effective date.

The enacted text is also narrower in places than the bill as introduced, and the chaptered act shows the session amendments on its face. A requirement that the cancellation mechanism be "simple" and "widely available" was struck and replaced with "cost-effective, timely, and easy-to-use." The word "toll-free" was struck from the telephone-cancellation requirement, so Maryland does not require a toll-free cancellation line. The carve-out from the Title 13 enforcement provisions was widened from section 13-408 alone to sections 13-408 and 13-411. Because the law is only months old, there is not yet a body of Maryland decisions interpreting it; treat section 14-1329 as the operative framework and check the statute text for later amendments.

A violation of section 14-1329 is an unfair, abusive, or deceptive trade practice within the meaning of Title 13 of the Commercial Law Article, and it is subject to the enforcement and penalty provisions of Title 13 with two exceptions: sections 13-408 and 13-411 do not apply. The deceptive-trade-practice list itself now names the section, at Commercial Law section 13-301(14)(xlix). Subsection (h) states plainly that nothing in section 14-1329 may be construed to authorize a private right of action under it or any other law.

Enforcement therefore runs through the state rather than through individual lawsuits under this statute. The Consumer Protection Division of the Maryland Office of the Attorney General mediates most complaints about goods, services, or credit obtained for personal, household, family, or agricultural purposes, taking them through an online complaint portal as well as by mail, fax, and email; its published numbers include 410-528-8662 and a toll-free Maryland line at 1-888-743-0023.

Before complaining, save the evidence: screenshots of the sign-up and cancellation screens, the dated renewal emails you did or did not receive, and your billing statements. This page is general information about Maryland law as of 2026 and is not legal advice; consult the statute or a licensed Maryland attorney about a specific dispute.