Is Automatic Renewal an Ethical Business Practice?
Many products are marketed using introductory offers, with free trial periods and/or a large discount for the first year if you provide a credit card number. For example, most auto breakdown services, media delivery and many magazines offer 50% or more off the first year’s membership, providing you pay by credit card or direct debit. If you don’t want to continue after the first year you can cancel, but the companies know that many people forget, or don’t bother.
Please justify your conclusion in the context of either a personal ethical framework or one of the three schools of thought regarding ethical standards