On Friday, the Federal Trade Commission voted to defer the compliance deadline for the amended Negative Option Rule by 60 days. The Commission issued a statement on the new deadline.
The delay reflects the FTC’s response to various commenters who expressed concern that, “given the complexities” of these provisions, it would take a substantial amount of time to come into compliance. Thus, to ensure ample time for companies to conform their conduct to the Rule, the Commission stated it would exercise its enforcement discretion by further deferring the compliance deadline for 16 C.F.R. §§ 425.4–425.6 by 60 days. Starting July 14, 2025, regulated entities must be in compliance with the whole of the Rule because the Commission will begin enforcing it. The FTC states that, if that enforcement experience exposes problems with the Rule, the Commission would be open to amending the Rule to address any such problems.
