We spend £1.6bn a year on subscriptions we don’t want — fast tracked UK Government policy promises to make cancelling them easier, and will make ‘phoney bargains’ illegal
THE SO WHAT
£1.6bn in unwanted UK subscriptions is now a regulatory target, not just a consumer gripe. Any business leaning on dark patterns or friction to reduce churn should assume those tactics are on borrowed time and start redesigning for real retention.
READ THE SOURCE
MORE FROM THE WIRE
Tech & InnovationGoogle adds third-party games store Aptoide to the Play Store for Android users in the US, following a judge's orders in the antitrust lawsuit with Epic
Android distribution is being forced one notch more open—having Aptoide installable via Play lowers the friction for alternative stores from "power user" to mainstream. If you run a game or app ecosystem, you now have a live testbed for multi-store pricing, promotion, and policy arbitrage on Android.
Tech & InnovationGoogle Finally Adds a Competing App Store to Google Play After Years-Long Battle With Epic
Regulators and courts are now writing distribution UX—Aptoide surfacing inside Google Play means alternative stores can piggyback on incumbent discovery rather than fighting it. Developers should model what happens to fees and featuring leverage when users can install a rival store in two taps.
Tech & InnovationA US appeals court allows ~2,400 federal lawsuits against social media companies to proceed over claims their products were designed to addict young users
Dark-pattern engagement is now a litigation vector, not just a PR risk—2,400 cases moving forward means discovery will drag internal growth playbooks into the open. Product and policy teams should assume design choices around feeds, streaks, and notifications will be scrutinized like defective hardware in class actions.
Tech & InnovationDouble your PC or PS5 storage with this 2TB Acer Predator SSD
High-performance 2TB NVMe drives dropping under $300 keeps local storage cheap relative to cloud and subscription upsells. For game and media-heavy apps, you can still assume users have room to install fat clients—at least on enthusiast hardware.