Ready for the UK subscription rules, inside your own store.
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 changes how subscriptions are sold to UK consumers: an easy way out, the ending confirmed in writing, reminders before renewals, cooling-off with a refund, the key terms before the contract. Renew Forge gives a WooCommerce Subscriptions store a mechanism for each, and a record of every time one ran — configurable, because the regulations are not published yet. A tool, not legal advice.
Free to start · Pro from £99/year · 14-day refund
When the rules apply, the CMA can fine a business that breaks them up to £300,000 or, if higher, 10% of its turnover (DMCC Act s. 182(6)).
Five duties, five gates. Every subscription goes through them.
From the checkout to the goodbye, the Act asks five things of a UK subscription. Renew Forge puts a mechanism at each gate — free or Pro, as marked.
-
ss. 256–257
Pro at checkout
Key terms before the contract
A subscription summary on product pages, and at checkout the key terms with a tick box that says the customer will pay.
-
ss. 258–259
Pro
Reminders before renewals
Before the first payment after a free trial or discount, before the payment that ends each six-month period, and an earlier one for yearly renewals.
-
ss. 264–266
Pro
Cooling-off, with a refund
Cancel within 14 days after the start and after qualifying renewals; the refund goes back through the payment gateway where it can.
-
s. 260
Free
Leaving must be straightforward
A one-click cancel button in My account, and the same on the subscription page. No "are you sure?" maze.
-
s. 261
Free
A written confirmation of the ending
An email with the date the subscription ends, for every cancellation — the button, the WooCommerce Subscriptions link, an admin, a gateway or the REST API.
A mechanism for every duty, and a record of every time it ran.
The way out, its confirmation and the journal that proves both are free. Pro adds what the Act asks for before a payment and after one.
One press to leave, the end date in writing
The cancel button sits in My account → Subscriptions and on each subscription page (s. 260). One press moves the subscription to pending cancellation — the customer keeps access until the end of the period already paid for — and the confirmation email with the end date goes out at once (s. 261). A cancellation made another way, by a shop manager, a payment gateway or the REST API, is confirmed too, once.
A journal that only ever adds
Every cancellation is recorded: who, when, from which screen, the status before and after, the end date, whether the email went and which version of its wording. The IP address and browser are kept only as keyed hashes. Nothing in the plugin edits or deletes a record, and the CSV export writes each one exactly as it was stored — the Act puts proving that a notice was given on the trader (s. 272(6)).
A compliance check that cites the Act
Each item about your store carries its status, what it found, what to do and the provision it is about — the cancel button, the confirmation email, the price and billing period on product pages, the wording of the order button. When a cancellation is refused or its email cannot be sent, the shop is told straight away.
Reminders before the payment (Pro)
A reminder before each renewal payment the Act asks one for (ss. 258–259): the first payment after a free trial, the payment that ends each six-month period, and an additional, earlier one for renewals twelve months or more apart. Each is planned once per payment, retried if the email fails, and logged. SMS goes through your own Twilio or Vonage account.
Cooling-off, refunded in proportion (Pro)
While a cooling-off period is open (ss. 264–266), My account offers “Cancel and refund”. The unused share of this subscription’s payment is worked out to the second and rounded up to the penny, then refunded through the payment gateway where it supports refunds — or listed for the shop with a due date. The regulations will say how refunds are worked out; until then the rule is a setting.
The key terms and a tick box at checkout (Pro)
The subscription terms, all together at checkout, with a required tick box that says the customer will pay (ss. 256–257) — on the classic checkout and the Checkout block, with the text shown and the tick saved with the order. The free plugin already puts a subscription summary on product pages.
Planned once per payment. Retried when the email fails.
The Pro planner works back from each payment. Every reminder belongs to one payment and to the section that asks for it; the log shows what went, what is due and what is being tried again.
- 26Sep Six-month reminder · #4812 Loose-leaf Tea Club for the payment on 3 Oct · £24.00 · s. 258(1) · email planned sent
- 29Sep Trial ending · #5006 Sourdough School for the payment on 6 Oct · £12.00 · s. 258(3)(a) · email the email failed · retry 1 of 3 within 24 h, next at 12:05 planned retry
- 15Oct Earlier reminder · #4655 Biscuit Tin Club for the payment on 14 Nov · £96.00 · s. 259(6) · email planned
- 7Nov Reminder · #4655 Biscuit Tin Club for the payment on 14 Nov · £96.00 · s. 258(1) · email planned
- 27Mar Six-month reminder · #4812 Loose-leaf Tea Club for the payment on 3 Apr · £24.00 · s. 258(1) · email planned
- 30Mar Six-month reminder · #5006 Sourdough School for the payment on 6 Apr · £12.00 · s. 258(3)(b) · email planned
- Before the payment that ends each 6-month period. s. 258(1)
- Before the first payment after a free trial, or after a coupon for a set number of payments. s. 258(3)(a)
- 7 days ahead — the period the checkout states. s. 259(3)–(4)
- Renewals 12 months or more apart: another one, 30 days ahead. s. 259(6)
- An email that fails is tried again 3 times within 24 hours.
- No reminder before other renewals, unless you switch one on.
None of these is set below the Act as passed. Every number is a setting, each with a default: the Act’s where it names one (six and twelve months), ours where it does not — the Act names no number of days before a payment. The regulations are not out yet.
Run the check, set the periods, let the journal keep the record.
Run the compliance check
Install the free plugin and open Renew Forge → Compliance check. Each item says what it found on your store, what to do about it, and which provision of the Act it is about.
Set the periods, keep the defaults
The reminder timing, the cooling-off window, the refund rule and every text are settings, each with a default: the Act’s where it names one (six and twelve months, fourteen days), ours where it does not. When the regulations set different numbers, you change a setting — and a release updates the defaults.
Let the journal keep the record
Cancellations, confirmations, reminders and refunds are written down as they happen. When somebody asks what happened and when, you export the answer exactly as it was stored.
Be the customer. Press cancel, then press it again.
Two real subscriptions of the demo shop. After a cooling-off window, the subscription runs to the end of what was paid for and the email names that date; inside one, it ends and the unused share comes back. One press either way, and a second press changes nothing.
- Subscription
- #4937 · Pastry Masterclass
- Price
- £18.00 / month
- Status
- Pending cancellation
One click. You will get a confirmation email with the date your subscription ends.
- Subscription
- #4984 · Pastry Masterclass
- Price
- £18.00 / month
- Status
- Cancelled
You are in the cooling-off period: cancel now and get £12.57 back. You can do this until the end of 4 October 2026.
- its cooling-off window closed25 August 2026
- access until, no further payment10 October 2026
- email sentCancellation confirmed: your Kettle & Crumb subscription #4937
Your subscription #4937 is cancelled. You keep access until 10 October 2026 and will not be charged again. We have emailed you a confirmation.
- paid for 20 Sep – 20 Oct£18.00
- 9 days used, kept£5.43
- refund, through the payment gateway£12.57
- on order #4983, line by line£10.48 + £2.09 VAT
Your subscription #4984 is cancelled and has ended. We have refunded £12.57 to the payment method you used.
- #1 check run shop · admin e0270d90
- #2 cancel requested #4903 · customer · subscription page 5d6ac6af
- #3 cancel failed #4903 · gateway · subscription page · shop alerted 5d6ac6af
- #4 cancel confirmed #4903 · shop · admin · email sent e0270d90
- #5 cancel requested #4937 · customer · my account ae55aa11
- #6 cancel confirmed #4937 · customer · my account · email sent ae55aa11
- #7 cooling off requested #4984 · customer · my account c4eabba5
- #8 cancel confirmed #4984 · customer · subscription page · email sent c4eabba5
- #9 cooling off cancelled #4984 · customer · my account c4eabba5
- #10 cooling off refund #4984 · gateway · system
- #11 cooling off confirmation #4984 · customer · email · email sent
Five real screens of the free plugin.
Taken on a demo store with WooCommerce Subscriptions. These are the free plugin’s screens; reminders, cooling-off refunds and the checkout terms come with Pro.
Built on WooCommerce Subscriptions
Renew Forge vs doing it by hand in WooCommerce Subscriptions
| What you are comparing | Renew Forge | by hand in WooCommerce Subscriptions |
|---|---|---|
| A way out online (s. 260) | One press in My account and on the subscription page, and a block for account pages built with blocks; a second press changes nothing | The Cancel link WooCommerce Subscriptions already shows in My account |
| The ending in writing (s. 261) | An email with the end date for every cancellation — the button, the Cancel link, a shop manager, a gateway or the REST API — once each | An email you write and send yourself, for each way a subscription can end |
| Reminders before a yearly renewal (ss. 258–259) | Pro: the regular reminder and the additional, earlier one, planned once per payment and retried if the email fails | One reminder a set number of days before each renewal, sent only on a production site — the additional, earlier one is not sent |
| Cooling-off refunds (ss. 264–266) | Pro: the unused share worked out to the second and refunded through the gateway, or listed as a task with a due date | Worked out by hand from the order, then refunded in the order screen |
| Key terms before the contract (ss. 256–257) | A summary on product pages; with Pro, the terms and a required tick box at checkout, saved with the order | Whatever text and checkbox you add to the product page and the checkout yourself |
| Showing what happened, later (s. 272(6)) | An append-only journal with keyed-hash fingerprints, exported exactly as stored | Order notes and your email log, if you keep one |
| A store with no UK subscribers | Built around the UK Act, so most of it would be beside the point | Nothing to add and nothing to configure their win |
If none of your subscribers are UK consumers, WooCommerce Subscriptions on its own is the right setup — the chapter of the Act that Renew Forge is built around is about UK consumer subscriptions.
The free plugin sends nothing. Pro names the two places it sends to.
Straight from the two readmes. Subscriptions, orders and the journal stay in your WordPress database either way — the only question is what crosses the border, and the answer is short enough to draw.
- subscriptions and orders
- customers
- the evidence journal
Nothing crosses the line: no external service, no HTTP request, no data sent anywhere.
- subscriptions and orders
- customers
- the evidence journal
- the reminder log
- api.avakode.comthe licence key, the product name and the site’s address, to check the licence; update checks add the two plugins’ versions, and run only while the licence is active
- your Twilio or Vonage accountthe customer’s billing phone and the message, with your own credentials — only if you switch SMS on
The way out and the journal are free. Pro is priced in pounds.
A year of Renew Forge Pro, sold by Paddle, our reseller and Merchant of Record; UK prices include VAT, and elsewhere any tax is shown at checkout. Fourteen days to change your mind.
What runs where in Renew Forge
Which work happens inside your own install, what leaves it, what needs a paid plan, and what a lapsed licence leaves behind.
What the free tier does inside your own install
- A compliance check of 14 items about your store: status, what was found, what to do.
- A one-click cancel button; the request is journaled before the status changes, and a second press never cancels twice.
- An evidence journal of every cancellation; IP address and browser are kept only as hashes keyed with this site's own salt.
What leaves your site when a feature is on, and where it goes
- The free plugin makes no outbound requests: a package test fails on any wp_remote_*, curl or fsockopen call.
- Pro sends the licence key, product name and site address to api.avakode.com — on a Licence-screen button, once a day while a key is stored, and on deactivation to release the site; updates come from the same host only while the licence is active. Nothing about orders or customers.
- SMS is off until you pick Twilio or Vonage; then the reminder text and the customer's phone number go to that provider with your own credentials. A cooling-off refund goes through the order's own payment gateway.
What needs Pro, credits or an outside service
- WooCommerce Subscriptions: without it the plugin shows a notice and touches no subscription.
- Renewal reminders need the separate Pro add-on with an active licence.
- SMS reminders need a licence plan that includes SMS (store-sms or agency) and your own Twilio or Vonage account.
What happens when the licence lapses
- Reminder planning, the checkout acknowledgement and the cooling-off button switch off with the licence.
- A shop that cannot reach the licence server keeps working on the last known state; a stale state only triggers a re-check.
- A lapse deletes nothing: the retention purge, too, runs only while the licence is active.
How long data is kept, and how you take it out
- The journal is append-only — its store has no UPDATE and no DELETE — and exports to CSV exactly as stored.
- Deleting the plugin keeps the journal and settings unless delete-on-uninstall was ticked first.
- Pro deletes evidence older than the retention you set (six years by default; 0 keeps it) and journals each purge; Tools → Erase Personal Data unlinks the customer and strips phone numbers and e-mails from error texts — the rest stays.
Nothing to import, and the evidence stays when you leave.
Nothing to import
Renew Forge reads the subscriptions WooCommerce Subscriptions already holds. It changes nothing on them until a customer presses a button or you switch a feature on.
One way out, or two
By default the Renew Forge button replaces the WooCommerce Subscriptions Cancel link, so customers have a single way to cancel. You can keep both in the settings.
Leaving keeps the evidence
Delete the plugin and the journal and the settings stay, because the journal is your evidence. Tick the box in Renew Forge → Settings first if you want them gone.
What UK subscription shops ask before the rules start
Put the way out, the reminders and the record in place before the rules start.
The free plugin gives you the compliance check, the one-press cancel, the confirmation email and the journal. Pro adds the reminders, the cooling-off refunds and the terms at checkout.
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