From “subscription fatigue” to dynamic pricing.
May 28, 2025
By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative Director
The “subscription economy” grew by nearly 600% in the past decade*.
Understandably, consumers are reaching the boiling point.
The pervasive, omnipresent subscription model is increasingly regarded as a predatory practice.
Big Tech, Big Retail, Big Media, Big Streaming. Big Muscles (that’d be gyms and health clubs) just love to use your credit card as their own ATM machine.
In 2025 you can subscribe to get a monthly supply of underwear, socks, booze, proteins, dietary supplements and so on and so forth.
Have you tried unsubscribing?
It is Kafkaesque.
The very definition of “sludge”.
Merchants went too far to stop the hemorrhage otherwise known as “membership churn”.
To add insult to injury, credit card companies are siding with predatory merchants.
They refuse to cancel a subscription on their end.
Disclaimer: I AM NOT ASKING FOR GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION**.
Politicians will only make matters worse.
They will add more layers of complexity and frustration, all sugarcoated with rosy feel-good language.
Laws are written by lobbyists.
My suggestion: man up.
Do your homework.
Cut the cord.
Grow up.
You won’t regret it.
You will feel liberated.
Netflix is not indispensable, nor is it Amazon Prime.
Let alone a gazillion silly, forgettable impromptu selfies stored on iCloud that you will NEVER see again.
But wait.
Be careful what you wish for.
If we collectively succeed at stopping the subscription bleed we might subsequently fall prey of a different kind of boogeyman: dynamic pricing.
For the good and the bad, we live in a day and age in which dynamic pricing can easily be applied to pretty much everything.
Groceries, utilities, healthcare, parking meters, gig labor.
Uber’s “surge pricing” across the board.
There’s an upside though.
For instance: should Big Macs or Whoppers be cheaper if they had sat under the heat lamp for more than, say, 20 minutes.
Makes sense that the asking price of a burger should be inversely proportional to the sogginess of the bread and the dryness of the patty.
Dynamic pricing, however, can be baffling too.
It is great if you have self-control and are willing to bargain.
It adds a layer of uncertainty to every transaction though.
Have you ever been to a bazaar in Southern Europe or the Middle East?
Some people just love the thrill of the hustle & haggle.
Some don’t.
* Survey: Most Believe They’re Overpaying for Their Subscriptions.
https://www.fool.com/money/research/survey-most-believe-theyre-overpaying-for-their-subscriptions/
** Federal Trade Commission Announces Final “Click-to-Cancel” Rule Making It Easier for Consumers to End Recurring Subscriptions and Memberships. Agency acts after receiving more than 16,000 comments from the public. October, 2024
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/10/federal-trade-commission-announces-final-click-cancel-rule-making-it-easier-consumers-end-recurring
