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moe90@feddit.nl to Technology@lemmy.worldEnglish · 5 months ago

Discord sued by users claiming Nitro subscription is too difficult to cancel

www.dexerto.com

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Discord sued by users claiming Nitro subscription is too difficult to cancel

www.dexerto.com

moe90@feddit.nl to Technology@lemmy.worldEnglish · 5 months ago
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Discord sued by users claiming Nitro subscription is too difficult to cancel - Dexerto
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Discord is being sued over Nitro, their subscription service, being too difficult to cancel. The suit claims their practice is anti-consumer.
  • 9point6@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    It wasn’t that hard to cancel. People are just dumb

    If a subscription is harder to cancel than it is to sign up, that’s anti-consumer. It’s not really anything to do with anyone’s intelligence.

    • ouch@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      It’s also illegal in EU.

      • dan@upvote.au
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        5 months ago

        and California (where this lawsuit is coming from)

    • Jyek@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      It’s not harder to cancel than to sign up though. It’s a one or 2 clock process to cancel and a whole lot of card details entering to sign up.

    • warm@kbin.earth
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      5 months ago

      I mean technically it is harder to sign up to Discord Nitro, you have to enter your payment details. Where cancelling is just a few clicks.

    • Nyxicas@kbin.melroy.org
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      No, it absolutely does have something to do with people’s intelligence. Because if you can’t seem to follow the prompts there to cancel? Yeah, you’re kind of dumb.

      It’s different than in Amazon’s case where sometimes they’ll flip the buttons on you, tricking you to resume. That kind of thing is anti-consumer.

      • Hawke@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        They’re both anti-consumer; the difference is in the degree.

        • Nyxicas@kbin.melroy.org
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          5 months ago

          How is the Discord way anti-consumer? Here, let me walk through to you the steps:

          I go to Subscriptions on the app, I see my subscriptions now, I see a button that says Cancel. I click it, a window pops up that says I can Continue or Nevermind. Right now I’d Continue but I don’t want to because I’m on a month trial, but I do imagine that by clicking Continue, it’ll end things with a notification that tells me I’ve unsubscribed.

          How is that process anti-consumer? It’s stupid easy to understand. I think you’re just arguing for the sake of arguing.

          • Hawke@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Button that doesn’t look like a button.

            Unclear phrasing…

            Now, am I saying it’s impossible to understand? No. Do I think it rises to the level of law-suit worthy? Barely.

            Is it anticonsumer and intentionally designed so as to make it more difficult to unsubscribe and put up barriers to get people to stay? Absolutely.

          • drkt
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            5 months ago

            Because it’s easier to sign up than it is to cancel.

          • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            5 months ago

            What the other user here is documenting Discord doing with the cancel button that doesn’t look like a cancel button are called “Dark Patterns.”

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_pattern

            The point of a Dark Pattern is to make options unclear and how to do things just ever so slightly confusing. Why? Because unlike you and me, this will trip up a significant number of users. They wouldn’t be doing it if it wasn’t working.

            Further, the US FTC considers Dark Patterns such a big deal that in 2021 they committed to ramping up enforcement of removing Dark Patterns that make it difficult to cancel subscriptions.

            https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2021/10/ftc-ramp-enforcement-against-illegal-dark-patterns-trick-or-trap-consumers-subscriptions

            It’s also important to note that Discord is being sued through a California law:

            https://casetext.com/statute/california-codes/california-business-and-professions-code/division-7-general-business-regulations/part-3-representations-to-the-public/chapter-1-advertising/article-9-automatic-purchase-renewals/section-17602-unlawful-acts-by-business-making-automatic-renewal-or-continuous-service-offer-to-consumer#:~:text=2024 Legislative Session.-,Section 17602 - Unlawful acts by business making automatic renewal or,the automatic renewal offer terms

            When you read through this, the Dark Patterns that Discord uses definitely fall under this law. One hopes that the FTC will do some follow-up with Discord as well.

            But I mean, go ahead, keep denying that psychological tricks are being used to make it difficult for some people to cancel. Not everyone’s brain works the same ways, and things that are easy to see for you aren’t easy to see for everyone. When it comes to consumer protections, we protect everyone, we don’t just say “You must be dumb, sucks to be you! I guess that means it’s okay to exploit you!” I mean, I personally am not cool with tricking the mentally handicapped for a quick buck.

      • Sippy Cup@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        A lot of people are dumb. Half the world’s population has a below average intelligence.

        Why should we allow companies to victimize dumb people? Why is that ok to you?

        • ryannathans@aussie.zone
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          Half of the world are below median intelligence, it’s likely the average isn’t also the median

          • Dragon Rider (drag)@lemmy.nz
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            Intelligence is usually graded on a normal distribution.

        • Nyxicas@kbin.melroy.org
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          5 months ago

          Why are you pulling strawmen out of your ass?

          • Sippy Cup@lemmy.world
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            I fail to see how it’s a strawman. Either you’re ok with companies taking advantage of people because they’re not very intelligent or you’re not.

      • Dragon Rider (drag)@lemmy.nz
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        5 months ago

        Dumb people deserve to be protected by the law.

      • NeatoBuilds@mander.xyz
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        5 months ago

        Amazon is pretty easy, just go to the renewal page and say don’t auto renew and hit confirm

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