French customers can cancel contracts online thanks to a consumer purchasing power protection law passed in 2023. What does this mean for you as a business? What types of contracts does this apply to? How can you make it easy for customers to cancel contracts online? In this article, we answer your most pressing questions about three-click contract cancellation and explain what it is and how it benefits you.

What’s in this article?

• What is 3-click cancellation?
  
• Which types of contracts does 3-click cancellation apply to?
  
• Setting up 3-click cancellation
  
• What are the advantages for businesses?
  
• What are the penalties for failure to comply?
  
• How Stripe Billing can help
  

What is 3-click cancellation?

Aimed at businesses, the 3-click cancellation mandate, also known as the “3-click rule,” was introduced by law no. 2022-1158 of August 16, 2022. Since the law took effect on June 1, 2023, businesses have been required to allow customers to cancel contracts online. The cancellation process must be free, permanent, straightforward, and easily accessible online.

The purpose of the law is to protect the purchasing power of French customers (by streamlining the cancellation process) and to foster competition. This enables customers to subscribe to contracts that are more attractive or better suited to their budget.

Which types of contracts does 3-click cancellation apply to?

The three-click rule applies to many common types of contracts between businesses and customers, such as:

• Home, vehicle, life, and health insurance contracts
  
• Customer contracts (automatically renewed subscriptions, service offers, and rental agreements)
  

It also applies to phone and internet providers, gas, electricity, and transportation companies, online newspapers and media outlets, gyms, video platforms, dating websites, and providers of digital services (such as SaaS and micro-SaaS). The law applies to contracts in effect as of June 1, 2023, and onward.

Setting up 3-click cancellation

Businesses affected by the law must provide a cancellation method that is easily identifiable within the user interface.

Steps

A button or tab labeled “Cancel your contract” (or similar) must be clearly visible on your website, mobile app, or in the customer’s account. This is the first click.

Next, you must ask for the customer’s information. They should be able to provide their name, contact details, contract number, desired cancellation date, and reason for cancellation. This is the second click.

The third click should take customers to a page summarizing the information they have provided. On this page, customers should be able to verify and edit their cancellation request. This page should include a button labeled “Confirm cancellation” or similar.

After the third click, you must confirm the customer’s request promptly and specify the date on which the contract will end. You must also make the consequences of cancellation clear.

What are the advantages for businesses?

Streamlining the cancellation process offers several advantages to businesses:

• Reducing the cost of processing cancellation requests
  
• Allowing businesses to analyze the reasons for cancellation and adjusting their products and services accordingly
  
• Attracting new customers interested in the product or service due to the easy cancellation policy
  
• Improving the customer experience, which might encourage customers who cancel to resubscribe at a later date
  

What are the penalties for failure to comply?

Failure to comply with the 3-click cancellation law is punishable by a fine of up to €15,000 for individuals or €75,000 for businesses. That’s why it’s important for businesses to comply.

How Stripe Billing can help

Stripe Billing lets you bill and manage customers however you want—from simple recurring billing to usage-based billing and sales-negotiated contracts. Start accepting recurring payments globally in minutes—no code required—or build a custom integration using the API.

Stripe Billing can help you:

• Offer flexible pricing: Respond to user demand faster with flexible pricing models, including usage-based, tiered, flat-fee plus overage, and more. Support for coupons, free trials, prorations, and add-ons is built-in.

• Expand globally: Increase conversion by offering customers’ preferred payment methods. Stripe supports 125+ local payment methods and 130+ currencies.

• Increase revenue and reduce churn: Improve revenue capture and reduce involuntary churn with Smart Retries and recovery workflow automations. Stripe recovery tools helped users recover over $6.5 billion in revenue in 2024.

• Boost efficiency: Use Stripe’s modular tax, revenue reporting, and data tools to consolidate multiple revenue systems into one. Easily integrate with third-party software.

Learn more about Stripe Billing, or get started today.