ECC warns of misleading offers with hidden subscriptions

Fake offers on social media

Many consumers have complained about misleading offers and fake promotions on social media to the ECC. Consumers report being stuck with subscriptions they never agreed to and are entirely unrelated to the product they wanted to buy.

These promotions offer popular products at extremely low prices, such as a €2 smartphone. Before they will sell you the phone, however, the seller will ask you to do something first, such as filling out a questionnaire with your personal details. Next, you will have to enter your credit card information to purchase the phone. Unfortunately, this is when you discover that the offer really was too good to be true. Instead of getting a phone, you will have signed up for a gym membership with a company you do not know, for example.

Unauthorised credit card charges

The EU and the Netherlands have clear rules for businesses. These rules protect consumers from misleading and unfair commercial practices. Businesses are required to share certain information with you and cannot sign you up for a subscription without your consent. However, the ECC still regularly receives complaints about unauthorised credit card charges for subscriptions that consumers never agreed to.

Duty of disclosure with subscriptions

Businesses offering subscriptions must inform you clearly and fully about their company details and the nature of the subscription before you take out the subscription. They are also required to provide information about the subscription fee, the payment schedule and the duration of the subscription. If the business failed to share this mandatory information, the contract is not valid and you are within your rights to withhold payment. The business must first prove that the contract is indeed valid.

Cancel the subscription and reverse the payment

Information you submitted after seeing a promotion or offer like this on social media can be used to make purchases and take out subscriptions in your name. This is a well-known online trap. Fortunately, there are things you can do.

Cancel unauthorised subscriptions

If you see credit card charges for a subscription you never signed up for, contact the business owner as soon as possible. If it's a foreign business, send an email in English stating that you did not agree to the subscription and do not wish to pay. You can use our template letter for this.

Request a refund from your credit card company

You can also ask your credit card company for a refund. More information about disputing charges can be found on the International Card Services website (Please note that their website is in Dutch.). This is also known as a chargeback. To find out more about how chargebacks work, visit Credit card | ECC Netherlands.

Help from the ECC

If the business doesn't respond and your credit card company can't reverse the payment, contact  ECC for free legal assistance. This is possible if you live in the Netherlands and the business is based in another EU country, Norway, Iceland or the United Kingdom. More details about ECC mediation can be found on our website.