Massachusetts's Automatic Renewal Rules: What Subscribers Should Know

Massachusetts is unusual among states with strong subscription protections: it has no standalone automatic-renewal statute. The rules come from a regulation written by the Attorney General's Office, 940 CMR 38.00, titled "Unfair and Deceptive Fees." That distinction shapes everything below. The regulation is binding law, but it was promulgated by a state agency rather than voted through the legislature, and its force flows from the state consumer protection act, General Laws chapter 93A.

Section 2(c) of Chapter 93A provides that the Attorney General may make rules and regulations interpreting section 2(a), which declares unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any trade or commerce unlawful. 940 CMR 38.00 is such a rule. It was adopted by Massachusetts Register Issue 1543 effective March 14, 2025, and 940 CMR 38.09, headed "Enforcement Date," provides that the regulation applies to acts committed or practices in force as of September 2, 2025.

Its purpose at 940 CMR 38.01 is to establish standards, by defining certain unfair and deceptive acts and practices, governing the imposition of fees and, separately, governing trial offers and contracts with negative option features. It is designed to protect consumers who are natural persons seeking to purchase, rent, lease, or barter products for personal, family, or household use. Under 940 CMR 38.02 the scope reaches acts or practices performed in connection with any advertising or marketing, solicitation, or offer of sale that is targeted to or results in a sale in Massachusetts, so an out-of-state seller is not automatically outside it. This page is general information about Massachusetts law, not legal advice.

The operative section is 940 CMR 38.05, "Recurring Fees and Trial Offers," which works by naming specific failures as unfair and deceptive practices under Chapter 93A, section 2. Two defined terms matter. A "negative option feature" is a provision of a contract under which your silence or failure to take affirmative action to reject a good or service, or to cancel or non-renew an agreement, is interpreted by the seller as acceptance or continuing acceptance; the definition expressly includes an automatic renewal, a continuity plan, a free-to-pay or fee-to-pay conversion, and a pre-notification negative option plan. A "trial offer" is any offer to participate in, acquire, or use a product without charge, at a reduced charge, for a rebate, or for only incidental costs such as shipping charges, for a limited time.

For trial offers, the business must disclose clearly and conspicuously and in writing, before you accept, any financial obligations you may incur, all products for which you may incur an obligation, instructions on how to reject or cancel before incurring one, the calendar date by which you must reject or cancel to avoid a charge, and the calendar date on which you will incur a charge if you do not. Requiring a real calendar date rather than a vague reference to the trial's end is one of the rule's more consumer-friendly touches. For products with a negative option feature, the business must disclose clearly and conspicuously and in writing, before purchase, that you will be charged or that charges will increase after any trial period ends, that charges recur unless you timely act to stop them, and how to cancel. "Clearly and conspicuously" is itself defined in 940 CMR 38.03 to mean readily noticeable and readily understandable by ordinary consumers, with detailed rules on size, contrast, and audibility, and a requirement that disclosures in interactive electronic media be unavoidable.

The cancellation rule at 940 CMR 38.05(3) is the provision most likely to matter in a dispute. It makes it an unfair and deceptive practice to fail to provide a simple mechanism for a consumer to cancel the negative option feature, avoid being charged for the product, and immediately stop any recurring charges.

That mechanism must be at least as easy to access and use as the method you used to initiate the subscription, and at a minimum available through the same medium, such as internet, telephone, mail, or in person. If you signed up over the internet, the cancellation mechanism must be available through the same website or web-based application. If cancellation is by telephone, all calls to the number must be answered promptly during normal business hours, and the call must not be more costly than the one you used to sign up. Where the sale happened in person, the business must make cancellation available by internet or telephone, and in addition, where practical, by an in-person method similar to the one used to sign up. The principle is the one several states have adopted: the exit should be no harder than the entrance.

Massachusetts does require advance reminders, on a tighter window than most states. Under 940 CMR 38.05(4), for any negative option feature exceeding 31 days, it is an unfair and deceptive practice to fail to provide written notice within no more than 30 and no fewer than five calendar days before the date on which you must cancel in order to avoid incurring a subsequent financial obligation. Note the anchor: the window runs from the cancellation deadline, which is not always the same as the billing date. The notice must disclose the financial obligations, all products affected, the cancellation mechanism, the calendar date by which you must cancel, and the calendar date on which you will be charged if you do not.

Delivery is regulated too. Under 940 CMR 38.05(5), for these longer features the notice must travel through a medium substantially similar to the one you used to start the subscription, or through a commonly used medium reasonably calculated to be seen and understood by an ordinary consumer that you affirmatively chose as your preferred method of contact. Where you signed up in person, only the second route is available. A business cannot satisfy the rule by posting a warning somewhere you would never look.

Shorter subscriptions are not left out, which sets Massachusetts apart from states whose reminder duties bite only on long terms. Under 940 CMR 38.05(6), for a contract with a negative option feature of 31 days or less in duration, the business must provide written notice either in the form required by 38.05(4), or one that discloses clearly and conspicuously, at least as often as you are charged, the amount charged at auto renewal along with instructions on how to cancel and avoid additional charges. In practice an ordinary monthly subscription should still generate one or the other.

The change to know about is recent. 940 CMR 38.00 was adopted effective March 14, 2025 and became applicable to acts committed or practices in force as of September 2, 2025. For most of 2025 there was no Massachusetts-specific auto-renewal rule at all, so subscriptions sold into the state before that date were governed chiefly by the general unfair-and-deceptive-practices standard in Chapter 93A and by federal law.

As of 2026 the regulation is fully in force and no statute has replaced it. Because it is a regulation, it can be amended by the Attorney General's Office through ordinary rulemaking rather than a new act of the legislature, so check the current text before relying on a specific subsection. Its structure also has a consequence: a failure to comply is not a breach of a subscription statute as it would be in Colorado or Connecticut, but an unfair and deceptive practice under Chapter 93A, carrying Chapter 93A's remedies.

Two enforcement routes exist. Under M.G.L. chapter 93A, section 4 the Attorney General may bring an action in the name of the commonwealth to restrain a practice declared unlawful by section 2 where proceedings would be in the public interest, and the court may make orders necessary to restore money or property to any person who suffered an ascertainable loss. Where the court finds the business employed a practice it knew or should have known violated section 2, it may impose a civil penalty of not more than $5,000 for each violation, and may require payment of the reasonable costs of investigation and litigation, including reasonable attorney's fees.

Consumers have their own route. Chapter 93A, section 9 lets a person injured by a method, act, or practice declared unlawful by section 2 "or any rule or regulation issued thereunder" sue for damages and equitable relief, and the second paragraph allows class actions on behalf of similarly situated persons; that quoted phrase is what connects 940 CMR 38.00 to a private claim. The third paragraph requires a written demand for relief, identifying the claimant and describing the practice and the injury, at least 30 days before filing; recovery is actual damages or $25, whichever is greater, rising to between two and three times that amount for a willful or knowing violation, with reasonable attorney's fees and costs awarded to a successful petitioner.

To complain rather than sue, contact the Attorney General's Consumer Advocacy and Response Division, which takes complaints online and runs a consumer hotline at (617) 727-8400. Send copies rather than originals of receipts, the sign-up and cancellation screens, the trial-offer disclosure, and card statements. This page describes Massachusetts law as of 2026 and is general information, not legal advice; regulations and their interpretation change, so review the primary sources below or consult a licensed Massachusetts attorney.