Sony and Nintendo change subscription terms of service after investigation

Sony and Nintendo have updated their subscription services to include automatic renewal protection for users.

The UK-based Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), today announced that it has completed its investigation into both companies. The organization was concerned about the automatic renewal mechanisms for PlayStation Plus and Nintendo Switch Online, as users might be stuck paying for services they no longer want to use.

As such, Sony has agreed to contact customers about how to cancel their PlayStation Plus memberships if their membership period has expired and they have not used the Service for a while. Additionally, if users continue not to use their memberships, Sony will also stop processing future payments. Nintendo has also agreed to change the Switch Online service so that the automatic subscription renewal setting is no longer the default option for customers.

says Michael Grenfell, CMA’s Executive Director of Execution at press release. “Companies in other sectors that offer auto-renewable subscriptions should review their practices to ensure they comply with consumer protection law.”

Back in January, the CMA conducted a similar investigation with Microsoft and Xbox. As a result, Microsoft now has to contact Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass customers who haven’t used the services in at least one year about how to cancel their subscriptions. If it is not used for another year, it will be canceled automatically.