IP: Rite of Refusal 'Opt-Out' Marketing Forces Consumers to Speak Up or Be Charged

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

  http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49642-2001May5.html

Murray of Bowie was perfectly happy with his Sears card, the one he'd had 
since 1969.
He didn't want a Gold MasterCard. He didn't ask Sears, Roebuck and Co. for 
a Gold MasterCard, and Sears didn't ask Murray if he wanted one. But Sears 
sent him a letter saying he was getting one anyway -- unless he turned it down.

Frustrated by waiting half an hour for someone to pick up on the 800 
number, Murray took the extraordinary step of driving to the nearby Sears 
to tell the credit manager in person that he didn't want the MasterCard. 
But there it was in his mail a few weeks later.

Except for the lengths he went to in trying to say "no, thanks," Murray's 
is not an unusual story. Every day millions of consumers find themselves 
bearing the burden of stopping a transaction that they may have done little 
or nothing to activate or canceling a service that otherwise would go on 
and on.

Companies are using "opt-out" policies to sell magazines, natural gas, 
cellular phone service, health-club memberships, lawn-care contracts, and 
other goods and services -- shifting the burden of stopping the charges to 
consumers. In recent weeks, many consumers have found opt-out privacy 
notices tucked in the inserts in credit card bills and bank statements.

"It's no longer a world of consumer consent, but consumer rejection," said 
Jean Ann Fox, director of consumer protection for the Consumer Federation 
of America.

Fox and other consumer advocates say that the technique -- also known by 
such terms as advance-consent marketing, continuous-service agreements or 
negative options -- has shifted the rules of engagement between sellers and 
buyers.

<snip>



For archives see: http://www.interesting-people.org/