The Subscription Trap: ROSCA, the Revived Click-to-Cancel Rule, and Dark Patterns Enforcement in 2026

Linda A. Goldstein, Partner, Advertising & Marketing and Regulatory, Compliance & Investigations | CM Law

Linda A. Goldstein is a Partner in the New York office of CM Law and a nationally recognized leader in advertising, marketing, digital media, and gaming law. For more than three decades she has counseled Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies across telecommunications, entertainment, cryptocurrency, consumer goods, retail, beauty, pharmaceuticals, financial services, and gaming on the full life cycle of a marketing program — from claim substantiation and digital, mobile, and influencer marketing to consumer reviews, ad-tech, privacy, and the use of artificial intelligence in advertising. A defining strand of her practice is subscription and membership marketing: she advises on enrollment flows, disclosures, consent, and cancellation under the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA), state automatic-renewal laws, and the FTC’s negative option rulemaking, and she has defended some of the most prominent subscription programs in the country in FTC and multistate State Attorney General investigations. She represented an e-commerce and online sweepstakes company in the FTC’s first enforcement action focused on “dark patterns,” giving her first-hand experience with the very theory of liability that now anchors the Commission’s subscription enforcement agenda.

• Education & Credentials

Ms. Goldstein earned her J.D. from New York University School of Law and her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. She is admitted to practice in New York.

• Recognition & Leadership

Ms. Goldstein is ranked Band 1 by Chambers USA in Advertising: Transactional & Regulatory (Nationwide), where she has also been designated a “Star Individual,” the guide’s highest tier of individual recognition; Chambers describes her as handling “every type of advertising issue” for “an elite client base” and notes that her “experience in the industry is hard to top.” She is a Legal 500 “Hall of Fame” attorney, is recognized by Best Lawyers and Super Lawyers, and has been named among the Top 50 Women Lawyers. She served as Contributing Editor of the Chambers Global Practice Guide on Advertising & Marketing and co-authored its U.S. chapter on advertising law. Her commentary on advertising and consumer protection has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, and NBC’s TODAY Show, and she is a frequent speaker at the industry’s most prominent conferences and accredited CLE programs.

• Professional Involvement

Ms. Goldstein has held leadership positions in the organizations that shape marketing self-regulation and policy. She is a member of the Government Affairs Committee of the Performance Driven Marketing Institute (PDMI), where she co-chairs the Women’s Leadership Council and the Women’s Mentoring Program, serves on the University Committee as an instructor, and has been inducted into the PDMI Hall of Fame. She previously served as Chair of the Board of the Electronic Retailing Association, the trade group whose members pioneered continuity and subscription marketing, and as Chair and Board Member
of the Brand Activation Association division of the Association of National Advertisers, where she remains a member of the Legal Affairs Committee. She also serves on the Legal Affairs Committee of the Fantasy Sports and Gaming Association, is a member of the American Bar Association, and is a former Chair of the Board of Directors of Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic.

• Experience

Before joining CM Law, Ms. Goldstein co-led the Advertising, Marketing and Digital Media team at BakerHostetler, chaired the Advertising, Marketing & Media Division at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, and chaired the advertising, marketing and media department at Hall Dickler Kent Goldstein & Wood, a leading New York advertising boutique where she was a name partner. Her subscription and negative option work is extensive and directly on point: she represented the largest dating app company in an FTC investigation of its subscription program and ROSCA compliance; represented beauty, credit reporting, and publishing industry leaders in FTC and State Attorney General investigations of their subscription programs and ROSCA compliance; represented leading publishers and e-commerce retailers in multistate State AG investigations of subscription programs; and advised a major telecommunications company on its consumer buy-flows, cancellation procedures, and customer service policies. She represented an e-commerce and online sweepstakes company in the FTC’s first action targeting dark patterns, represented a major telecom company in a multistate action by more than 30 Attorneys General that set industry-wide wireless marketing standards, represented two major retailers in FTC investigations under the Mail Order Rule, defended a social gaming network in a landmark FTC influencer marketing case, and represented the nation’s largest ticket seller in an FTC investigation of its sales practices. Having sat across the table from the FTC and State AGs on the precise issues — enrollment, disclosure, consent, and cancellation — that ROSCA, the revived Click-to-Cancel Rule, and the dark patterns enforcement wave put in play, she is uniquely positioned to explain what regulators are looking for in 2026 and how subscription businesses can build compliant flows before the enforcement letter arrives.

Andrew B. Lustigman, Co-Managing Partner; Chair, Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Practice; Co-Chair, Brand Management & Protection Practice | Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP

Andrew B. Lustigman is Co-Managing Partner of Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP in New York, Chair of the firm’s Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Practice, Co-Chair of its Brand Management & Protection Practice, and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. For three decades he has advised domestic and international marketers, advertisers, agencies, and suppliers on advertising, marketing, and promotions law, and has represented them in regulatory investigations, enforcement actions, and litigation before the Federal Trade Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Justice, the Federal Communications Commission, the U.S. Postal Service, state Attorneys General, and district attorneys. Subscription and automatic-renewal marketing is a core focus of his practice: he counsels subscription businesses across every media channel on enrollment, disclosure, consent, billing, renewal, and cancellation practices, has resolved an investigation by California’s Automatic Renewal Task Force, and is among the most prolific legal commentators in the country on the FTC’s Click-to-Cancel Rule, its vacatur, and the Commission’s renewed subscription enforcement under ROSCA — including the FTC’s record $2.5 billion settlement with Amazon over Prime enrollment and cancellation practices.

• Education & Credentials

Mr. Lustigman earned his J.D., magna cum laude, from American University Washington College of Law, where he was Managing Editor of the American University Law Review and a member of the Washington College of Law Honor Society, and his B.A. from the University of Michigan. He is admitted to practice in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, and before the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the District of New Jersey, the District of Maryland, and the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

• Recognition & Leadership

Mr. Lustigman is recognized by Chambers USA as a leading advertising lawyer and is highlighted by The Legal 500 US in Advertising and Marketing, where Olshan is ranked as a leading firm. He has been selected for The Best Lawyers in America (2027), named to the Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Entertainment, Sports & Media Lawyers (2026), and profiled by Financier Worldwide as a “Power Player” and Distinguished Adviser in Advertising & Marketing (2025). He was elected a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation in 2020, an honor limited to a small fraction of the practicing bar. He is the publisher of Olshan’s Advertising Law Blog, which he has written for more than twenty years, and his articles appear regularly in the New York Law Journal, Bloomberg Law, Law360, Attorney at Law Magazine, and Inside Counsel. His recent writing tracks the subject of this program in real time, including “Amazon’s $2.5B Settlement with the FTC and the Continued Focus on Subscription-Based Practices” (New York Law Journal, 2025), an analysis for Bloomberg Law of why marketers must remain vigilant after the death of the Click-to-Cancel Rule (2025), “FTC’s ‘Click to Cancel’ Rule” (New York Law Journal, 2024), “Avoiding Automatic Renewal and Cancellation Pitfalls” (Bloomberg Law, 2024), and analyses of the FTC’s and the states’ prioritization of automatic-renewal regulation.

• Professional Involvement

Mr. Lustigman serves as Treasurer of the International Bar Association’s Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law Committee and has been a frequent presenter at IBA annual conferences, including a 2026 Copenhagen program on AI-generated advertising. He served as editor of the American Bar Association’s Advertising Report and is a member of the American Bar Association, the New York City Bar Association, the District of Columbia Bar, the Maryland State Bar Association, and the Federal Communications Bar Association. He is a sought-after faculty member for the advertising bar’s leading continuing education programs, including the Practising Law Institute’s Hot Topics in Advertising Law, the American Conference Institute’s advertising claims substantiation and regulatory forums, Brooklyn Law School’s annual developments in advertising and social media law, the Institute for Advertising Ethics, and myLawCLE, where he has presented on sweepstakes and promotions, false advertising litigation, and AI liability. He has also testified as an expert witness on advertising compliance in federal court and serves as special advertising counsel to other leading law firms.

• Experience

Mr. Lustigman began his career in 1995 at The Lustigman Firm, the advertising law boutique founded by his father, Sheldon S. Lustigman, with whom he practiced for more than 25 years; the firm joined Olshan in 2011. His subscription and negative option experience spans the full range of enforcement risk: he represented a leading subscription marketer of wine products on continuity compliance and resolved a California Automatic Renewal Task Force investigation of its enrollment and cancellation practices; advises a leading financial news publisher on its subscription program, including telemarketing, automatic renewal, billing disclosures, and collections; and provides ongoing regulatory counsel to a leading online travel agency on advertising, subscription enrollments, and outbound call center practices. He has defended an e-commerce marketer in a New York Attorney General investigation, defended a memorabilia marketer in a joint FTC and New York State investigation of its marketing practices, represented an over-the-counter pharmaceutical company in National Advertising Division challenges that upheld its national campaign, and defeated class certification in a TCPA action against an automated voice and text messaging provider, reducing claimed exposure from $20 million to $500. He also clears advertising and promotional materials, structures sweepstakes, contests, and games of skill, advises on social media and direct marketing programs, counsels on FTC and FDA requirements for health claims and labeling, and conducts advertising and marketing due diligence in mergers, acquisitions, and investments. That combination of day-to-day compliance counseling for subscription businesses, hands-on defense of state and federal investigations, and sustained public analysis of the Click-to-Cancel Rule’s rise, fall, and revival makes him uniquely positioned to walk practitioners through the ROSCA and dark patterns enforcement landscape of 2026.

SESSION 1 – The Rules of the Recurring Charge: ROSCA, State Auto-Renewal Laws, and the Click-to-Cancel Revival | Linda A. Goldstein | 12:00pm – 1:00pm

This session examines the current status of Click-to-Cancel following the Eighth Circuit’s vacatur and the FTC’s 2026 revival, distinguishing the requirements that are enforceable today from those that may be forthcoming. It explores the practical application of ROSCA, including clear-and-conspicuous disclosures, express informed consent, and the “simple mechanism” standard for cancellation, as reflected in recent FTC enforcement actions. The discussion also addresses the state-law overlay, focusing on California, New York, and the expanding patchwork of automatic-renewal laws, including reminder notices, renewal-term disclosures, and multistate enforcement by state attorneys general. It further examines how businesses can structure free trials, upsells, and retention offers to withstand regulatory scrutiny, drawing on 2025–2026 settlements to explain consent-order requirements, consumer redress obligations, and potential civil-penalty exposure for noncompliance.

BREAK | 1:00pm – 1:10pm

SESSION 2 – Dark Patterns on Trial: Interface Design as a Consumer-Protection Violation | Andrew B. Lustigman | 1:10pm – 2:10pm

This session examines the practices regulators increasingly identify as dark patterns, including confirm shaming, pre-checked boxes, drip pricing, and obstructive design, along with the FTC’s evolving approach to classifying deceptive user experiences. It explores how checkout and cancellation flows can become evidence in enforcement actions and litigation, focusing on the use of screenshots, click-path analytics, and A/B testing records to demonstrate potentially misleading design choices. The discussion also addresses AI-driven personalization and dynamic offers, examining when optimization may cross into deception and what disclosures regulators may expect. It further considers how plaintiffs’ counsel are adapting FTC and state attorney general enforcement theories for class-action litigation, including emerging defense strategies. Finally, the session presents a practical compliance audit framework for reviewing enrollment, billing, and cancellation user experiences, documenting design decisions, and preserving evidence of compliance before regulatory scrutiny arises.