Tennessee's Automatic Renewal Law: What Subscribers Should Know

Tennessee's rule sits inside the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act of 1977, at Tennessee Code Annotated section 47-18-133, "Automatic renewal of subscription services." It was created by Public Chapter 803 of 2022, originally House Bill 1652, effective January 1, 2023 and applying to offers made or agreements entered into or renewed on or after that date. It was amended by Public Chapter 835 of 2024, originally Senate Bill 1894, effective July 1, 2024 and applying to agreements entered into, renewed, or modified on or after that date.

The section applies to a business that makes an "automatic renewal offer" or a "continuous service offer" to a consumer in Tennessee. The 2022 act added definitions to section 47-18-103: an "automatic renewal" is a plan in which a paid subscription or purchasing agreement is automatically renewed at the end of a definite term for a subsequent term, and a "continuous service" is one that continues until the consumer cancels. The 2024 amendment defines "consumer" here as an individual who acquires goods or services for personal, family, or household purposes.

Subsection (e) lists the exemptions: FDIC-insured banks and trust companies and their operating subsidiaries; NCUA-insured credit unions; entities licensed by the department of financial institutions; services provided under a franchise issued by a political subdivision or an authorization issued by the Tennessee public utility commission; individuals, businesses, and affiliates regulated by the Tennessee public utilities commission, the FCC, or FERC; and businesses licensed under title 56, the state's insurance title. This page is general information about the statute, not legal advice.

Subsection (a)(1) requires a business to present the automatic renewal offer terms or continuous service offer terms clearly and conspicuously before the agreement is fulfilled, and in visual proximity to the request for consent, or temporal proximity if the offer is conveyed by voice. If the offer includes a free gift or trial, it must also clearly and conspicuously explain the price charged after the trial ends, or how pricing will change at its conclusion.

The "automatic renewal offer terms" are a defined list in section 47-18-103: that the agreement continues until the consumer cancels; the cancellation policy; the recurring charges, that the amount may change if that is so, and the amount to which it will change if known; the length of the renewal term or that the service is continuous, unless the consumer chose the length; and the minimum purchase obligation, if any.

Subsection (a)(2)(A) is the consent rule: before charging the consumer's card or third-party account, the business must obtain affirmative consent to the agreement containing the offer terms, including terms offered at a promotional or discounted price. The 2024 amendment defines "affirmative consent" as a clear, affirmative act signifying a freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous agreement, including a written statement or an unambiguous affirmative action.

Subsection (a)(3) requires an acknowledgment including the offer terms, the cancellation policy, and how to cancel, in a retainable form. If the offer includes a free gift or trial, the business must also disclose in that acknowledgment how to cancel, and allow the consumer to cancel, before paying for the goods or services.

Subsection (c) is Tennessee's online-cancellation rule and it is unusually direct: a business that allows a consumer to accept an automatic renewal or continuous service offer online must allow the consumer to terminate exclusively online. The statute adds that this may include a termination email formatted and provided by the business that a consumer can send without additional information. An online sign-up cannot be paired with a phone-only exit.

Whatever the sign-up channel, subsection (b) requires a toll-free telephone number, an electronic mail address, a postal address if the seller directly bills the consumer, or another cost-effective, timely, and easy-to-use mechanism for cancellation, and that mechanism must be described in the acknowledgment required by subsection (a)(3).

The 2024 amendment added a refund right tied to consent. If a business does not obtain affirmative consent in accordance with subsection (a)(2)(A) or (a)(2)(B) and charges the consumer's card or third-party account, it must refund the charge upon request by the consumer submitted within seven days of the date it charged the account. That window is short, which is a reason to check statements promptly.

Tennessee does not require a recurring renewal reminder. Nothing in section 47-18-133 obliges a business to notify you a set number of days before each renewal, the way Colorado and Utah do.

There are two notice triggers instead. The first, added in 2024 at subsection (a)(2)(B), addresses delayed charges: if the charge will occur more than sixty days after affirmative consent was obtained, the business must give clear and conspicuous notice of when it will charge, and must obtain affirmative consent again no less than sixty days before charging.

The second is material change. Subsection (d) requires that, when the terms of an accepted automatic renewal or continuous service materially change, the business give the consumer a clear and conspicuous notice of the change and information regarding how to cancel, in a manner capable of being retained.

The framework in force during 2026 is section 47-18-133 as amended by Public Chapter 835 in 2024. That amendment rewrote subsection (a)(2) to add the sixty-day delayed-charge consent rule, replaced the definitions subsection to define "affirmative consent" and "consumer," and added the refund-on-request provision. The 2022 structure, including the online-cancellation rule and the exemptions, was left in place.

A broader rewrite was proposed in 2025 and did not become law. Senate Bill 302 and House Bill 420, styled the "Tennessee Consumer Protection and Subscription Renewal Act," would have amended and replaced the existing section. According to the General Assembly's own bill-history pages, Senate Bill 302 was assigned to the General Subcommittee of the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee on March 18, 2025 and House Bill 420 was taken off notice in the Banking and Consumer Affairs Subcommittee on March 26, 2025. Neither was assigned a public chapter number.

For 2026, treat section 47-18-133 as amended in 2024 as the operative law. Because Tennessee has revisited this section twice in three years and considered a full replacement once, anyone with a live dispute should confirm the current text on the General Assembly's site.

Public Chapter 803 did more than add a stand-alone section. It also amended section 47-18-104(b), the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act's list of unfair or deceptive acts and practices, to add violating section 47-18-133 as a new item. That places automatic-renewal violations inside the state's principal consumer protection framework rather than leaving them as an isolated contract rule.

The Tennessee Attorney General's Division of Consumer Affairs describes itself as the clearinghouse for consumer complaints about unfair or deceptive acts or practices conducted in the state, and it accepts complaints online. A complaint is the ordinary route for reporting a business that ignored the acknowledgment, cancellation, or notice requirements.

Keep records showing what you were shown and what you did: the sign-up screen, the acknowledgment the business sent, dated cancellation attempts and any confirmation, and billing statements. This page is general information about Tennessee law as of 2026 and is not legal advice; whether a private remedy is available on particular facts is a question for a licensed Tennessee attorney.