All those "* by using this free trial you agree to pay 19.99/month for at least 24 months" scams went away basically overnight.
The key to this is not to be afraid to aggressively add new dark patterns to the list of banned practices.
An alternative would be aggressively hitting scammers who clearly rely on people missing the fine print with criminal charges for fraud/extortion (when they try to collect on the non-contracts). No idea why that wasn't done - the legal system is usually a lot more resistant to the "well, TECHNICALLY" thing than engineers think.
Germany is really good about these rules. For example, a long list of practices, including mandatory arbitration, is explicitly forbidden (or forbidden in standard contracts) in § 308-309 BGB. § 312j BGB mandates clear disclosure that and what you're about to spend money on. The whole set of § 312-someletter is basically "we found another shitty practice and we're ending it now".
All those "* by using this free trial you agree to pay 19.99/month for at least 24 months" scams went away basically overnight.
The key to this is not to be afraid to aggressively add new dark patterns to the list of banned practices.
An alternative would be aggressively hitting scammers who clearly rely on people missing the fine print with criminal charges for fraud/extortion (when they try to collect on the non-contracts). No idea why that wasn't done - the legal system is usually a lot more resistant to the "well, TECHNICALLY" thing than engineers think.
Germany is really good about these rules. For example, a long list of practices, including mandatory arbitration, is explicitly forbidden (or forbidden in standard contracts) in § 308-309 BGB. § 312j BGB mandates clear disclosure that and what you're about to spend money on. The whole set of § 312-someletter is basically "we found another shitty practice and we're ending it now".