South Carolina's Automatic Renewal Law: What Subscribers Should Know

South Carolina's automatic renewal requirements arrived in 2024. Act No. 159 of 2024, which began as Senate bill S.434, added two parallel sections and took effect upon approval by the Governor on May 20, 2024. Section 37-6-120 sits in the South Carolina Consumer Protection Code at Title 37; section 38-78-55 sits in chapter 78 of the Insurance title, a chapter titled Service Contracts that governs warranty-style agreements to repair, replace, or maintain property and is administered by the Department of Insurance. Their operative language is identical.

Two definitions added at section 37-1-301 set the boundaries for the Title 37 provision, and they are where the law's narrowness lives. A "service contract" is "a written contract for the performance of services over a fixed period of time or for a specified duration." The definition excludes service contracts sold or offered for sale to persons other than a natural person or an individual for personal, family, or household purposes, so the protection is aimed at ordinary consumers rather than businesses, and it also excludes contracts for services provided by an entity incorporated under Chapter 49, Title 33, the chapter governing electric cooperatives. Note the word "written": an arrangement with no written or electronic contract behind it does not fit.

An "automatic renewal provision" is "a provision under which a service contract is renewed for a specified period of more than one month if the renewal causes the service contract to be in effect more than six months after the day of the initiation of the service contract," effective unless the consumer gives notice of an intention to terminate. That holds two thresholds: a month-to-month subscription is never covered, and neither is a short contract that ends within six months of signing. The definition also excludes contract renewals for services provided by a telecommunications carrier or its affiliate regulated by the South Carolina Public Service Commission or the FCC, and by any broadband entity covered by Act 175 of 2020, the Broadband Accessibility Act. This page is general information about South Carolina law, not legal advice.

This is where South Carolina differs most sharply from California, Colorado, and Oregon, and the difference is worth stating plainly: the statute imposes no disclosure duty at the moment you sign up. Sections 37-6-120 and 38-78-55 say nothing about presenting renewal terms clearly and conspicuously next to the request for your consent, nothing about obtaining affirmative consent before charging a card, and nothing about sending a retainable acknowledgment afterward. The entire duty the statute creates arrives later, as a notice before the renewal.

Because the sign-up screen is not governed by this statute, subscribers should capture those terms themselves. Save the confirmation email, screenshot the checkout page showing the term length and price, and note the date the contract started, since the six-month and one-month thresholds are measured from that date and from the length of the renewal period.

The statute does not create a right to cancel and does not dictate how cancellation must work. There is no requirement that a company offer online cancellation, a one-step link, or a path as easy as the one used to sign up. The cancellation deadline itself comes from the contract you signed; the statute simply measures its notice window backward from "the cancellation deadline required by the automatic renewal provision."

What the law does require is that the pre-renewal notice tell you how to get out. It must conspicuously disclose the methods by which the contract holder may obtain details of the automatic renewal provision and the cancellation procedure, and it specifies that those methods "shall include a toll-free telephone number, electronic email address, a postal address if the seller directly bills the consumer, or another cost-effective, timely, and easy-to-use mechanism for cancellation." A phone number or an email address satisfies that list, so a company can comply while still routing you through a phone call. Because a phone or email cancellation leaves no automatic record, note the date, the representative's name, and any reference number.

The renewal notice is the whole of South Carolina's automatic renewal law. Section 37-6-120 states that no automatic renewal provision in a service contract shall be enforceable against the contract holder unless the contract holder was presented written or electronic notification of that automatic renewal provision not less than thirty days nor more than sixty days before the cancellation deadline required by the automatic renewal provision. Section 38-78-55 says the same for contracts reached through the Insurance title.

The notification must conspicuously disclose three things: that unless the holder cancels the contract, the contract will automatically renew; the amount that will be charged upon renewal, so a price increase cannot arrive unannounced; and the methods by which the holder may obtain details of the renewal provision and the cancellation procedure. It may be delivered on paper or electronically, so a compliant email counts.

Note what the timing is measured against. The window runs from the cancellation deadline required by the automatic renewal provision, not from the renewal date, and those are often different. If your contract requires 45 days' notice to cancel, the company's notice has to reach you 30 to 60 days before that earlier deadline.

The requirements in force in 2026 are the ones Act No. 159 created in 2024. Section 38-78-55 carries the history note "2024 Act No. 159 (S.434), SECTION 1, eff May 20, 2024"; section 37-6-120 carries the same act at SECTION 2, and the two definitions at section 37-1-301 at SECTION 4. No later act appears in those notes. The law is fully in force, with no delayed provisions still waiting to take effect and no phased schedule of the kind Colorado adopted.

It is equally important to be clear about what South Carolina still does not have: no pre-enrollment disclosure standard, no affirmative-consent requirement before a card is charged, no free-trial conversion rule, no obligation to offer online or one-step cancellation, and no coverage of month-to-month plans. A subscriber paying monthly for a streaming service, a fitness app, or a software plan gets nothing from this statute, because a monthly renewal is not a renewal "for a specified period of more than one month." The law is aimed at longer-term contracts with an annual or multi-month renewal cycle.

The remedy the statute writes down is unenforceability. If the company did not present a compliant notice in the 30-to-60-day window, the automatic renewal provision is not enforceable against the contract holder. That works as a shield rather than a penalty: it is the argument you raise when a company bills a renewal you were never warned about. The statute does not itself set a civil penalty or a damages formula.

Section 37-6-120 was placed in Chapter 6, Part 1 of the Consumer Protection Code, the part titled Powers and Functions of Administrator. Under section 37-6-103 the Administrator is the officer appointed by the Commission on Consumer Affairs to administer Title 37, and section 37-6-104 directs that officer to "receive and act on complaints, take action designed to obtain voluntary compliance with this title, or commence proceedings on his own initiative." The South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs runs an online complaint portal and also accepts a printed form by mail. For contracts governed by section 38-78-55, a complaint may instead be routed to the South Carolina Department of Insurance, which registers service contract providers and enforces chapter 78.

Keep the evidence that decides these disputes: the original contract showing the term and the cancellation deadline, every renewal notice you did receive, proof of the date you asked to cancel, and the billing statements showing the renewal charge. This page is general information about South Carolina law as of 2026 and is not legal advice; review the primary sources below or consult a licensed South Carolina attorney about a specific dispute.