[3][4] This is different than situations where a customer signs up for a service or club without reading fine print and agrees to purchase goods through the mail.
[3][5] A notable example is the class-action lawsuit against Scholastic Corporation by consumers who felt "harassed, deceived, intimidated, and threatened" when they tried to cancel membership.
MP Roger Gallaway introduced a private-member's bill in 1996 to ban the practice which passed first reading, but died on the order paper when the House was dissolved for the 1997 elections.
Michael Janigan of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre stated: The concern associated with the practice of negative option billing has its origins in the nature of a contract of purchase and sale, as recognized in common law.
[8] Ontario's regulations prohibiting negative option billing do not protect consumers from owing for goods or services that they have agreed to receive.