Automatic renewal laws · the record to keep · updated
New York's automatic renewal law, as amended from 5 November 2025
New York amended its automatic renewal law (Gen. Bus. Law § 527-a) with effect from 5 November 2025. A business must give clear notice of a material change, “including any price increases, at least five business days prior” (N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 527-a(1)(g)) (read 10 October 2026) and no more than thirty days before it, and before charging the higher price must have the customer's consent to it, or let them cancel within 14 days of the charge with a pro rata refund. A renewal of a year or more needs a notice 15 to 45 days before the cancellation deadline.
Who it covers. “any individual who seeks or acquires, by purchase or lease, any goods, services, money, or credit for personal, family, or household purposes.” (N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 527(3)). A customer buying for a business is not a consumer under § 527(3).
Each duty, in the statute's words
N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law §§ 527 and 527-a, as amended (effective 5 November 2025); the amended § 527-a took effect on 5 November 2025.
For an initial paid term of a year or longer that renews for six months or longer, notify 15 to 45 days before the cancellation deadline, with how to cancel
“at least fifteen days before, but not more than forty-five days before, the cancellation deadline for such automatic renewal”
When: 15 to 45 days before. To keep: each notice: the date sent, the channel the customer chose, and its text. The window counts back from the cancellation deadline, which can be earlier than the renewal date; this tool counts from the renewal date unless you record an earlier deadline.
For a free trial of more than a month, notify 3 to 21 days before the first charge's cancellation deadline
“at least three days before but not more than twenty-one days before the cancellation deadline for the first chargeable period”
When: 3 to 21 days before. To keep: the notice: the date sent, the channel, and its text.
Give notice of a material change, including a price increase, 5 business days to 30 days before it
“including any price increases, at least five business days prior, but no more than thirty days prior, to the date of the change”
When: 5 to 30 days (at least 5 business days) before. To keep: each notice: the date sent, the old and new price, and the date of the change.
Before charging a higher price: get consent to it, or let the customer cancel within 14 days of the charge with a pro rata refund
“first obtaining the consumer's affirmative consent to such increased price”
To keep: the consent to the new price, or the cancellations and refunds in the 14 days after the first higher charge.
Let the customer cancel through every medium they could consent through
“fail to provide the consumer with the option to cancel, at any time through all mediums by which the business allows a consumer to provide affirmative consent”
To keep: the cancel mechanisms you offer, and each cancellation.
Unlike California, New York's § 527-a names no period for keeping consent. The notices it dates are still a record only you can make: Stripe keeps no log of renewal reminders or price notices.
The record from your own Stripe account, free
$ npx --allow-remote=root https://agentwares.vercel.app/dl/autorenew-record-0.2.0.tgz check --stripeEach subscription beside the law of its customer's state: the consent on record, the annual reminder, the notices before a renewal and a price change, and what is missing, kept in a hash-chained ledger on your disk. It reads your account through a restricted read-only key you make in the Stripe Dashboard (a secret key is refused), or your Stripe exports. It never writes to Stripe, never emails your customers and sends nothing to us. No AI. Also a local MCP server: the same command with mcp.
A signed renewal evidence report
The tool writes the report for your counsel: the period's consent, reminders, notices and gaps per subscription, as JSON and PDF, with its SHA-256. A signed report adds a dated Ed25519 signature over this report's SHA-256, which anyone can check later; only the hash is sent to be signed. The report itself is complete without it.
The signature is over the report's hash only: your customers' data stays on your machine. One-time, with no account; the report command prints the link for your report's hash.
A hosted renewal ledger that records consent from your Checkout, and sends and keeps the annual reminders and price notices for three years, is not built
It would take consent as it happens from your Checkout, send the annual reminder and the notices before a renewal or a price change from your own domain, and keep each one in okgate's hash-chained log for three years.
What exists today: these pages, the free tool, and the ledger it keeps on your own disk.