Time Inc has settled the lawsuit raised by 23 states alleging "improper marketing and billing practices" with respect to the company's automatically renewing subscriptions.   The company will pay back millions to more than 100,000 subscribers who had their subscriptions automatically renewed.

Automatic renewal is a device used by many web based subscription businesses.   It will be most interesting to see if this practice is ended.   Many companies provide only the option to subscribe on an automatically renewing basis.   This defies normal contract law in which it is impossible to contract for anything beyond a reasonable period of time.   The practice has been adopted almost uniformly in, for example, online database accesss.   No legal precedent is established in this case since it was settled but those who engage in the practice may want to think twice about it.   And those who have had to hold on the line waiting for a customer service representative to cancel something they didn't realize they had bought might consider spending that time typing out a clear letter to their state's attorney general rather than playing solitaire.