Newspaper and magazine subscriptions

Read the terms carefully before you subscribe to a newspaper or a magazine

You can always refuse to make a purchase. You have no obligation to purchase anything, no matter how much time the magazine vendor has spent presenting an offer.

Read the subscription terms carefully and only subscribe to a newspaper or magazine if you accept all the terms and conditions.

Before getting a newspaper or magazine subscription, you should check

• the total price of the subscription
• the period of the subscription
• the terms on which you can cancel the subscription
• if a fixed-term subscription continues automatically as one that is valid until further notice when the contract period or offer expires, and what the normal total costs over the invoicing period are.

Cancelling a newspaper or magazine subscription

The rules of distance selling apply to newspaper and magazine subscriptions purchased online, through telemarketing and as a mail order. If you have purchased a fixed-term or permanent subscription for a newspaper or magazine, you have the right to cancel a subscription bought through distance sales by using the method set out in the cancellation instructions to inform the vendor of this at the latest 14 days after receiving the first newspaper or magazine. The right to cancel a distance sale does not apply to the supply of a single issue of a newspaper, magazine or journal.

 

Cancelling a newspaper or magazine subscription

Newspaper and magazine subscriptions are often fixed-term contracts. You usually cannot cancel them before your fixed-term contract expires. A company may not automatically renew a subscription as another fixed-term contract, but the subscription will typically continue as one that is valid until further notice. If you would like to terminate a subscription that is valid until further notice, you must use the notification form provided, or inform the vendor by some other unambiguous means. You cannot terminate the contract simply by stopping payments.

Subscription vendor’s obligations

1. In telemarketing, the subscription vendor must give their name and make the commercial purpose of the call clear at the very beginning of the conversation.
2. Before the consumer purchases a subscription for a newspaper or magazine, the vendor must inform them clearly and comprehensibly of the total price over the entire invoicing period. If the contract remains in force after a special offer period, the vendor must also inform the consumer of the normal total costs over the invoicing period.
3. The vendor must send the consumer a confirmation of a contract concluded through distance sales within a reasonable time and in a permanent manner. It must contain all the information referred to in the legislation, as well as a cancellation form and instructions for cancelling the contract if the vendor did not provide them earlier.