Wine Club Automatic Renewal

California Automatic Renewal Law (ARL)

• The California Automatic Renewal Law (ARL) took effect July 1, 2025.
• The law requires that if you offer online enrollment for memberships, you must also provide a convenient online cancellation option.
• To help reduce attrition and increase member retention, this feature in eCELLAR includes an optional “online suspension” feature, allowing your customers more control over their memberships without requiring them to fully cancel.
• For questions related specifically to the ARL or legal interpretation of the new requirements, we recommend consulting your compliance advisor or legal counsel.
• You can review the full text of the law here: CA Business & Professions Code §17600 et seq, or explore details here: https://getterms.io/blog/california-automatic-renewal-law-arl.

ARL Set Up in Club Tiers

1. Terms and Conditions:

   The ARL mandates that businesses clearly disclose key details: pricing, billing frequency, and cancellation instructions, at the time of enrollment AND within the account management interface.

   When Terms and Conditions are present in the ACP club tier they will appear as a link in an existing subscription on the web site.

   These terms may vary from winery to winery. We suggest you consult your compliance or legal advisors for the exact wording you wish to use.

2. My Account Max Suspend:

   Suspend option is not required by the ARL. We include this feature to provide a more flexible alternative to cancellation, and help reduce potential attrition.

   If this field is left blank, the suspend option will not appear to members online.

   The suspend will expire the day after the set date selected by the member.

3. My Account Cancellation:

   When this is checked:

   a. A link to CANCEL will appear in My Account > Club Subscriptions.

   b. Members will need to select a cancellation reason from a subset of those in the ACP.

   c. Members can also leave optional comments, which will be saved as a note in their Customer Card as an Account Note. (This feature is not required by ARL but can help you proactively address common cancel reasons.)

   

Member Web Site (DW) Actions

New Sign Up

• At the review step of the signup process the terms and conditions will appear with a confirmation checkbox.

• If Terms & Conditions are not added for the tier, the default consent message will appear on the web site.

  

My Account > Club Subscriptions

• Once logged in, from My Account a member can edit a Club Subscription.

• Upon clicking Club Subscriptions the options include Edit (as always), and/or Suspend, and/or Cancel based on the settings in the tier editor.

• When Terms and Conditions are present in the ACP club tier a link will appear in an existing subscription.

  

  
  

1. Suspend: (Optional) If the My Account Max Suspend field is left blank in the Club Tier settings, the suspend option will not display.

   When a member chooses to suspend, they must select a reactivation date.

   The suspend will expire automatically the following day.

   The member can add an optional note which becomes an Account Note in their Customer Card.

   

   
   

2. Cancel: To enable cancellations, the My Account Cancellation checkbox must be selected in the Club Tier editor. 

   The member is required to choose a reason from the dropdown menu, modified from that in the ACP.

   The member can add an optional note which becomes an Account Note in their Customer Card.

   Note: The phone number used in the cancelation message is the Wine Club Phone in the ACP Company settings.

   

Admin Panel (ACP) Membership Account

The Customer Card > Club tab now includes a Consent Date field.

• The Consent Date is automatically recorded when a customer joins a club using the online form.
• For in-person signups, staff can manually enter the Consent Date for any club.

• The Consent Date remains editable, so it can be updated later if the customer reconfirms consent.

  

Membership Search

ARL requires a reminder notice to be sent 15–45 days prior to renewal.

1. Anniversary Date: Based on each member’s join date, this provides search capabilities for campaign target groups to send reminders that meet the requirement.

2. Consent Date: This field tracks when a customer agreed to your club’s Terms & Conditions.

   

Email Notifications

• Customers will automatically receive email confirmations when they cancel or suspend their membership, supporting ARL’s post-purchase notice requirements.
• Admin alerts will be sent to the Club Change email defined in your Company Settings, so your team stays informed in real time.

See this article for more details regarding Email Notifications.