Subscription Billing, Free Trial & Auto-Renewal Compliance | Adult Attorney

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Nine Large Banks Flagged for “Debanking” Policies That Hit Adult Businesses — and Why the Problem Isn’t Going Away

In December 2025, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released preliminary findings from a supervisory review of “debanking” at the nine largest national banks it oversees. The OCC’s headline conclusion was blunt: across 2020–2023, these banks maintained policies that made “inappropriate distinctions” among customers based on lawful business activity — often through blanket sector restrictions or heightened internal barriers that functioned like denials of service. Featured In The February 2026 Edition Of XBIZ World For the adult industry, the report mattered for a simple reason: it put a federal banking regulator on record acknowledging what performers, creators,…

Eighth Circuit Vacates FTC’s “Click-to-Cancel” Rule — But the Fight Isn’t Over for Negative Option Compliance

July 9, 2025
Corey D. Silverstein
FTC Compliance and Defense, News, Subscription Billing, Free Trial & Auto-Renewal Compliance

On July 8, 2025, just days before enforcement was set to begin, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vacated the Federal Trade Commission’s “Click-to-Cancel” Rule — officially known as the Rule Concerning Subscriptions and Other Negative Option Plans. The court’s decision came in response to consolidated petitions challenging the rule’s scope, legality, and procedural underpinnings. While the rule faced several lines of attack, the Eighth Circuit ruled decisively on procedural grounds, holding that the FTC failed to conduct the required preliminary regulatory analysis after underestimating the rule’s economic impact. Specifically, the FTC initially claimed the rule would…