Mastercard Targets Free-Trial Merchants

Preventative measures target consent, hidden autopayments at the source

Rumble strips

It happened a while ago – back in January – but it’s worth noting now as the policy goes into effect: A major credit card company is putting novel provisions in place to restrict free-trial subscriptions.

Mastercard’s new policy throws speed bumps in front of merchants who use a free-trial consent as the gateway to automatic payments.

Mastercard-approved merchants will be required “to gain cardholder approval at the conclusion of the trial before they start billing,” the company announced. “To help cardholders with that decision, merchants will be required to send the cardholder – either by email or text – the transaction amount, payment date, merchant name along with explicit instructions on how to cancel a trial.”