You signed up for a $2 trial. It was clearly labelled "fully refundable". Three months later you're scrolling your bank statement and there it is — $49, then $49, then $49.

You go to cancel. There's no cancel button. There's a help centre, a chatbot, a "reasons you might want to stay" page, and finally a form that says someone will be in touch within 48 hours. You are, in the plainest terms, stuck.

Australia has just made that illegal. In July 2026 Federal Parliament passed a law banning subscription traps and the design tricks that create them. Here's what actually changes, when it changes, and what you can do about a subscription that's bleeding you right now.

What Just Changed: Subscription Traps Are Now Banned

The Competition and Consumer Amendment (Unfair Trading Practices) Act passed in July 2026. It amends the Australian Consumer Law and does three separate things.

1. It bans "dark patterns." A dark pattern is a design choice built to push you into a decision you didn't intend to make. Think countdown timers that reset when you reload the page, cancel buttons hidden three menus deep, or terms buried in a wall of text nobody could reasonably read. The new rule catches conduct that manipulates you or unreasonably distorts the environment you're making a decision in — where that's likely to cause you harm, financial or otherwise.

2. It kills drip pricing. Businesses will have to show transaction fees — booking fees, delivery charges, "service" charges — prominently and right next to the base price. Not on step four of checkout after you've entered your card details.

3. It sets real rules for subscriptions. This is the big one. Businesses running subscriptions that auto-renew will have to disclose the terms, the renewal policy and the cancellation steps clearly and upfront. Cancelling has to be easy to find and take a minimal number of steps. And critically: if the subscription can be signed up for online, you have to be able to cancel it online — even if you originally signed up in a store or over the phone.

No more "please call our retention team between 9 and 4 on weekdays".

Which Subscriptions This Covers

Broader than you might assume. The subscription rules apply to contracts that automatically renew or create an ongoing liability — which sweeps in streaming services, meal kits, software and apps, dating apps, online courses, news paywalls, cloud storage, memberships and equipment-included gym plans.

They also cover small business subscriptions, not just consumer ones. If you run a sole trader business and you're paying for six tools you can't work out how to cancel, this applies to you too.

What it doesn't do is turn every long-term contract into something you can walk away from. A genuine fixed-term agreement with a clearly disclosed minimum term is still a contract. The target here is concealment and obstruction — terms you were never shown clearly, and exits that were made deliberately difficult.

The Catch: It Doesn't Start Until 1 July 2027

The law is passed, but businesses get a 12-month transition period. The new obligations commence on 1 July 2027.

So if you're trapped in something today, the new rules don't rescue you. That doesn't mean you have nothing. Australian consumer law already had teeth here — the regulator has just been using them, hard.

Two Cases That Show What "Already Illegal" Looks Like

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) hasn't been waiting for the new law.

JustAnswer — $10 million. The Federal Court found the online Q&A service misled Australian consumers between November 2022 and August 2025. The pitch was a "$2 (fully refundable)" trial. What people actually got was automatic enrolment in a $45–$75 monthly subscription without adequate disclosure. The company was also found to have falsely suggested an affiliation with the Fair Work Ombudsman — worth knowing if you've ever paid a website for workplace advice.

HelloFresh and Youfoodz — before the court now. In December 2025 the ACCC launched proceedings alleging both brands told customers they could cancel online before a delivery cut-off, when in reality online cancellation didn't stop the charge and you had to contact customer service. The ACCC alleges 62,061 HelloFresh customers and 39,408 Youfoodz customers were charged after cancelling. These are allegations and the case hasn't been decided — but the scale tells you how normal this practice became.

The pattern in both is the same, and it's the pattern the new law is aimed at: the promise of easy cancellation, without the mechanism to actually do it.

What You Can Do About a Subscription Right Now

You don't have to wait until July 2027. Four things are worth trying, roughly in this order.

1. Put your cancellation in writing, and date it

Email beats chat. Chat beats phone. If the only option is a phone call, follow it up with an email that says "confirming my call today, I cancelled effective [date]". You are building a paper trail, and the paper trail is what wins arguments later.

Screenshot everything — the cancellation page, the confirmation screen, the chat transcript. In the HelloFresh and Youfoodz matters, the customers who were charged anyway had done exactly what the site told them to do. Proof of that is the whole ballgame.

2. Check the term against the unfair contract terms rules

Australian law already lets a court declare a term in a standard-form consumer contract void if it's unfair — meaning it causes a significant imbalance, isn't reasonably necessary to protect the business, and would cause you detriment. Since late 2023, businesses can also be penalised for using them, not just told to stop.

Terms worth a second look: automatic rollovers you can't exit, cancellation fees that look nothing like the actual cost to the business, and clauses letting the business change the price without notice. We walk through this in detail in our guide to cancelling a gym membership in Australia — the same reasoning applies to meal kits, streaming, software and app subscriptions.

3. Escalate before you go to your bank

Ask the business, in writing, to refund the charges taken after your cancellation, and say why you think they were taken in breach of the Australian Consumer Law. If that fails, you can report the conduct to the ACCC or lodge a complaint with your state or territory consumer affairs body. The ACCC doesn't resolve individual disputes, but reports genuinely shape what it investigates — manipulative conduct in the digital economy is on its current enforcement priority list.

4. Only then, talk to your bank or card provider

A chargeback can claw back a disputed transaction, and cancelling a recurring card authority is sometimes possible. It's a last resort rather than a first move, because a chargeback doesn't end the contract — some businesses will keep billing, or send the debt to a collector. Cancel the contract properly first, then chase the money.

It's also worth knowing which type of payment you set up, because they behave differently. A recurring card payment is an authority you gave the merchant to charge your card, and your bank can usually help you stop it. A direct debit pulls straight from your account under a separate debit agreement, and you can generally cancel that authority with your bank as well. Neither cancels the underlying contract — stopping the money without ending the agreement is how people end up with a debt collector instead of a subscription.

What if you signed up in a store?

Right now, a business can legitimately require you to cancel the same way you signed up — which is how in-store gym sign-ups end up with in-person cancellation requirements. From 1 July 2027 that changes: if the subscription can be entered into online, online cancellation has to be available, regardless of how any individual subscriber signed up. Until then, follow their process exactly and document each step.

How to Avoid the Next One

Subscription traps almost always announce themselves at sign-up, if you know the tells.

The trial that needs your card. Legitimate free trials exist, but a "$1" or "$2" trial that requires full payment details and doesn't state the post-trial price on the same screen is the single most reliable warning sign.

"Fully refundable." Refundable how, by when, and by whose decision? If the page doesn't say, treat the word as marketing rather than a promise.

No cancellation path in the FAQ. Before you sign up, search the site for how to cancel. If you can't find it in 30 seconds while you're motivated and calm, you won't find it in six months while you're annoyed.

A minimum term hidden in the terms. Monthly pricing on the sales page, 12-month commitment in clause 8.3. This is the same trick that shows up across consumer agreements — we listed the worst offenders in 5 contract clauses Australians sign without reading.

Back to That $49 a Month

The trial that quietly became a subscription wasn't your reading comprehension failing. It was a design that worked exactly as intended — and from 1 July 2027, that design is against the law.

Until then, the tools you have are documentation, the unfair contract terms rules, and being unreasonably stubborn in writing. It's less satisfying than a cancel button. It also works more often than most people expect.

Not Sure What You Actually Signed?

If the terms run to 4,000 words and you're trying to work out whether you're locked in, upload the agreement to Contractam. We'll read every clause and flag the ones that are unusual, one-sided, or potentially unenforceable — including auto-renewals and cancellation terms — in plain English. Your first analysis is free.

Disclaimer: This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Laws and commencement dates can change, and court proceedings referred to here may not be finalised. For advice on your situation, consult an Australian lawyer or your state or territory consumer affairs office.