HBO Max: cancellation problem
Find who bills you, then cancel at least 24 hours before the next billing date; streaming continues to the end of the billing period.
What does this mean?
Grade A (high: almost everything comes from official pages read directly). 92% of 13 sources are the organization's own pages or government sites.
Collect
- cancellation confirmation email
- expiration date shown
- billing provider name
Steps
Open hbomax.com/subscription (or Profile, Subscription in the app). The billing provider shows at the top.
If WarnerMedia bills you, choose Cancel Your Subscription and confirm. Save the confirmation email.
If Apple, Google Play, Amazon, Roku, Samsung, a cable or mobile provider, or the Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max Bundle bills you, cancel with that provider.
If charged after cancelling, contact HBO Max through the Help Center, then dispute the charge with the card issuer.
Facts you can cite
- Deadline
"Cancel your subscription at least 24 hours before your next billing date to avoid further charges."
Source: help.hbomax.com, verified 2026-10-12
- Policy
"You can continue streaming until your subscription expires at the end of your billing period." Deleting the HBO Max app does not cancel the subscription.
Source: help.hbomax.com, verified 2026-10-12
Rules in force
- Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act (ROSCA) negative option requirements15 U.S.C. 8401-8405
A seller that charges consumers online through a negative option feature (for example an automatic renewal or a free trial that converts to paid) must clearly disclose all material terms before taking billing information, get the consumer's express informed consent before charging, and provide simple mechanisms to stop recurring charges. The FTC enforces ROSCA.
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
3 citable points
- Policy
Before obtaining the consumer's billing information, the seller must provide text that "clearly and conspicuously discloses all material terms of the transaction".
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
- Policy
The seller must provide "simple mechanisms for a consumer to stop recurring charges" on the consumer's credit card, debit card, bank account or other financial account.
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
- Process
A ROSCA violation is treated as a violation of an FTC rule on unfair or deceptive acts or practices, and the FTC enforces ROSCA with its FTC Act powers and penalties. Report violations to the FTC.
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
- Policy
Rules not in force (do not cite)
- FTC "Click-to-Cancel" amendments to the Negative Option Rule (2024) Vacated16 CFR part 425 (2024 amendments, published November 15, 2024)
Vacated in full by the Eighth Circuit on July 8, 2025 (Custom Communications, Inc. v. FTC, 142 F.4th 1060). The FTC removed the 2024 text effective February 12, 2026 and restored the pre-2024 prenotification rule. A new rulemaking is only at the ANPRM stage (March 13, 2026), with no proposed text as of 2026-10-12. What remains in force: ROSCA (rules/rosca-negative-option), Section 5 of the FTC Act, and state automatic renewal laws (for example rules/ca-automatic-renewal-law, rules/ny-automatic-renewal-law).
Not in force. Do not cite it as current law.
If that fails, escalate
Go up one step at a time. Keep the reference numbers and dates from each contact.
Customer service
Written complaint
Card or bank dispute
Fair Credit Billing Act billing-error and purchase-dispute rights (Regulation Z)
Electronic Fund Transfer Act error resolution and unauthorized-transfer liability (Regulation E)
Card dispute for charges after a cancellation.
Federal regulator
State agency
Your state’s attorney general. Find it in the list of state agencies (also as JSON:
states/<code>.json, for example states/ny.json).
Watch out
- The Subscription page needs sign-in with an adult profile.
- The help center lists no phone number or email; Contact us is a footer link that opens contact options.
- Partner-billed subscriptions (Apple, Google Play, Amazon, Roku, Samsung, cable and mobile providers, Disney+ bundle) must be cancelled and refunded through the partner.
Let your AI agent handle this
Escalate Anything is a free, open-source MCP server for Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Gemini CLI, Codex and other AI apps. Your agent gets this playbook, keeps a case log with reference numbers and follow-up dates, and drafts each message for you to approve.
1. Set it up (needs uv):
uvx escalate-anything setup2. Ask your agent:
I cancelled HBO Max on [date] and they still charge me. Use Escalate Anything to stop it and get refunded.Source code, other install options and the Claude Code plugin