Vermont Automatic Renewal Bill Slips Into Law

Defines new contract boundaries

On a Tear

Vermont has been keeping busy. We recently covered the Green Mountain State's aggressive anti-data broker legislation passed in May 2018, the first of its kind in the United States. In June, Vermont kept the ball rolling by passing a new law that puts official boundaries around automatic renewal programs and offers.

The Takeaway

The refreshingly tripartisan bill (signed by members of the Democratic, Republican and Progressive parties) aims to ensure that consumers are not subject to auto-renewal of subscription services without explicitly opting in. Among its many goals, the legislature hopes that the law will provide protection to "vulnerable" consumers, such as minors and incapacitated persons, whose personal information is at risk of exploitation or otherwise being used without their consent.