Subscription service

❗Article Status Notice: This Article is a stub

---

This article is underdeveloped, and needs additional work to meet the wiki's Content Guidelines and be in line with our Mission Statement for comprehensive coverage of consumer protection issues. Learn more ▼

Issues may include:

• This article needs to be expanded to provide meaningful information
• This article requires additional verifiable evidence to demonstrate systemic impact
• More documentation is needed to establish how this reflects broader consumer protection concerns
• The connection between individual incidents and company-wide practices needs to be better established
• The article is simply too short, and lacks sufficient content

How you can help:

• Add documented examples with verifiable sources
• Provide evidence of similar incidents affecting other consumers
• Include relevant company policies or communications that demonstrate systemic practices
• Link to credible reporting that covers these issues
• Flesh out the article with relevant information

This notice will be removed once the article is sufficiently developed. Once you believe the article is ready to have its notice removed, please visit the Moderator's noticeboard, or the Discord (join here) and post to the #appeals channel, or mention its status on the article's talk page.

❗Article Status Notice: Inappropriate Tone/Word Usage

This article needs additional work to meet the wiki's Content Guidelines and be in line with our Mission Statement for comprehensive coverage of consumer protection issues. Specifically it uses wording throughout that is non-compliant with the Editorial guidelines of this wiki.

Learn more ▼

How You Can Help: If this is a non-Theme article (See: Article types):

• Persuasive language should not be used in the Wiki's voice. Avoid loaded words, or the causing of unnecessary offense, wherever possible.
• No direct attacks on named individuals or companies. Malice may be attributed to bad and proven offenders, but only through the use of quotation and citation - never in the Wiki's voice.

If this is a Theme article:

• Where argumentation is used make sure it is clear and direct but not inflammatory. Avoid strong language, or causing unnecessary offense.
• No direct attacks on named individuals or companies. Malice may be attributed to bad and proven offenders, in a formal and calm manner.

This notice will be removed once sufficient documentation has been added to establish the systemic nature of these issues. Once you believe the article is ready to have its notice removed, visit either the Moderator's noticeboard, or the Discord (join here) and post to the #appeals channel.

A subscription service is an ongoing transaction agreement between the customer and the company; where a user usually pays on a week, month or yearly basis to use the services provided by a company. In many cases this model is used where a company has a sustained cost of doing business some of which include cloud storage, VPN's and many other SaaS products.

How it works

When a(n) individual wishes to use a service like a VPN (Virtual Private Network) like Mulvad VPN a ongoing payment agreement (subscription) is established so that the business can continue to be sustainable and profitable. Prices may increase or decrease depending on various factors and or promotions that a company may offer to draw in more customers to experience their service.

Why it is a problem

Subscription based economy trend

Subscription service revenue was estimated at "$3 trillion in 2024, up from estimates of around $2 trillion in 2023" subscription services are becoming more prevalent. The replacement of permanent ownership with subscription services has some negative impacts that can harm consumer rights.

Redefinition of ownership

Instances of companies using the terms "ownership" and "own" when referring to subscription products and services have become prevalent. These instances are at the bare minimum misnomers: consumers do not own something if they have to pay a subscription to use it. The redefinition of language could be seen as a malicious attempt by companies to lessen the severity of the loss of ownership that consumers are now facing.

OTA subscription paywall updates

Companies like BMW paywall specific features on their cars that were once available without a subscription and advertised as apart of the original product that was purchased to get more money out of customers that may have bought the product for its feature lineup

Making subscriptions hard to cancel

Memberships signups like gyms which offer a service make it very easy to sign up online; and then in term make it very hard to cancel. Specific gyms may even require you to certify mail them just so that you can cancel your service you signed up for online. Additionally some services like Adobe will even penalize you for canceling early instead of waiting for the subscription to expire and choosing not to renew. This practice is mainly done to make consumers feel like it's not worth their time and effort to stop the subscription.

Licenses as subscriptions

A license grants rights to use a product or service. Licenses differ from subscriptions in that permanent licenses exist while no subscription is ever permanent, in addition many companies choose to make temporary "licenses" last longer than subscriptions as Adobe does. Licenses also may apply to large groups of people, I.E. a student license granted to students for free. The concern here is that permanent licenses are being phased out using the retroactively amended purchase strategy as Adobe has done possibly because subscriptions are more profitable. The term "license" is likely vulnerable to redefinition as ownership is.

Subscription inflation

Subscription inflation occurs when companies increase subscription prices, often arbitrarily. This practice has been seen with Netflix subscriptions where in 2025 "the standard monthly subscription without advertisements will climb from $15.49 to $17.99, and a standard monthly subscription with ads will increase one dollar to $7.99, Netflix said". Subscription inflation need not be done to recoup lost revenue as this Netflix subscription price increase actually occurred after a year of "a stellar earnings report", meaning that Netflix has the resources to improve their service without raising prices. Subscription inflation has and will be used solely to raise company profits by forcing consumers to pay more for what may be an unimproved service.

Examples of subscription services

TV/Film

Netflix

Further reading: Netflix, Inc.

Netflix is a subclass of subscription service, known as a streaming service, where consumers have access to a library of TV shows and movies that persist on the platform for a limited time.

Gaming

Main article: Games as a service

Game Pass

Further reading: Game Pass

Game Pass, also known as Xbox Game Pass or Microsoft Game Pass, is a subscription service maintained by Microsoft where for a fee, consumers have open (but temporary) access to games on both Xbox and PC.

Nintendo Switch Online (NSO)

Further reading: Nintendo Switch Online

Nintendo Switch Online is a subscription service that offers features that were either initially offered for free on previous Nintendo platforms, such as online play, or subscription-gates content that used to be one-time purchases, such as their emulation library. Additionally, all DLC freely obtained via the service is only accessible so long as the consumer continues to pay for the service.

Software as a service

Main article: Software as a service