We hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend! In this week’s Five on Friday, PYMTS reports that consumers are fighting “subscription friction” as retailers like Adore Me use deceptive practices to sign up subscribers, CNBC explores how media outlets are getting people to pay for news, Quip raises another $40 billion for subscription dental services, Google considers shutting down Google News in the EU to avoid being taxed on links and, as YouTube waffles on whether or not it should have subscriptions, it offers student deals on YouTube and YouTube Music.

Deceptive Business Practices Cause “Subscription Friction” for Subscribers 

These days you can get a subscription for just about anything, including everything from software-as-a-service and home security to beauty boxes and lingerie. Subscription companies who provide a positive user experience are the norm, but some subscription companies like retailer AdoreMe have been called out – even sued – for deceptive business practices.

We’ve written about AdoreMe several times, including a November 22, 2017 article about the FTC’s order for AdoreMe to pay $1.3 million to settle consumer complaints. The FTC said AdoreMe customers who did not purchase an item or specifically indicate they were skipping a particular month’s shipment by the fifth of the month were automatically charged $39.95. AdoreMe said this amount could be used as a store credit, but it then removed store credits without telling consumers. The company also used negative option features that did not clearly disclose terms and conditions to its customers.

Earlier this month, CNBC reported on AdoreMe and included an example of one AdoreMe shopper who was enrolled in the company’s membership program but did not realize it. The repeated monthly membership charges caused this shopper to overdraw her account. Other companies including Apple, Fablectics and eHarmony have been the subject of class-action suits for auto-renewing subscriptions without a consumer’s express consent. In some cases, these companies and others like them make canceling a subscription very difficult.

These types of business practices create “subscription friction” for customers, said PYMNTS in a November 19 story. Referring to PYMNTS Subscription Commerce Conversion Index, 90 percent of the top-performing subscription services make it easy for customers to cancel their subscription. In addition, rewards for subscribers and opt-in marketing are also popular features.

The bottom line – if you want to attract and retain subscribers, make sure your terms and conditions are clearly posted, that cancellations are easy, and that subscribers know exactly what they are getting – and not getting – for their subscription dollar.

How Media Outlets Are Getting Consumers to Pay for News 

It seems virtually every week we hear about another media outlet that has put up a paywall to help cover the cost of their operations, whether it is a hard paywall like The Wall Street Journal or a metered paywall like The New York Times. While not initially popular with consumers because they could find news for free, paywalls are becoming more of the rule than the exception. In a recent article, CNBC explored how media outlets are getting consumers to pay for news again.

Let’s start by stating the obvious. It is a complex problem. As the popularity of print advertising has declined, digital advertising has grown, but digital advertising is often not enough to cover the cost of a media outlet’s operations. Toss in billions of dollars in ad fraud and the growing popularity of ad blockers, and publishers are not always getting what they should earn for the ads they display on their sites. Facebook and Google’s dominance in the digital ad world also complicate matters.

That leaves publishers with a revenue gap to fill through subscriptions, event revenue, affiliate links, merchandise and other products and services. New subscription services are springing up all the time, and they are relying primarily on subscription revenue. The Athletic launched in 2016, and this subscription-only sports outlet is now in 47 markets and has more than 100,000 subscribers, according to CNBC.

ESPN+ launched seven months ago and it has more than 1 million subscribers already. Fox Nation just launched its ad-free, subscription-only streaming channel this week. Nieman Lab reports that New York magazine and Quartz are also going the subscription route. Not every media outlet is going the route of subscriptions and paywalls, but those that are successful have a unique, respected product that consumers are willing to pay for.

Read CNBC’s detailed analysis on Alex Sherman’s article “Putting the Genie Back in the Bottle: How a New Breed of Media Companies is Convincing People to Pay for News Again” on CNBC. 

Subscription Dental Service Quip Raises $40 Million in Additional Funding 

Earlier this week, subscription-based oral health care company Quip announced that it has raised $40 million in equity funding, led by Sherpa Capital, an existing investor, and debt financing from Triplepoint Capital. The new funding brings the total raised to date to $60 million. The funds will be used to support the launch of new dental products and professional care services.

To date, Quip has sold more than 1 million of its ADA-approved electric toothbrushes from its direct-to-consumer website since the company’s late 2015 launch. The company’s next expansion is to bring its products to Target stores.

Quip’s toothbrushes are sold via subscription with starter sets priced starting at $25 and refills starting at $5. Brush head refills are delivered every three months for customers selecting the auto-refill plan. Additional options include anticavity mint toothpaste, group sets, travel covers and manual toothbrushes. The company’s toothbrushes have been named one of TIME magazine’s best inventions of 2016 and best electric toothbrush by GQ.

“My co-founder Bill May and I built Quip with the vision to create a full-service oral care platform that serves every oral care need, from the products our members use everyday, to the professional care services they require at least twice a year,” said Simon Enever, CEO and co-founder of Quip in a news release. “We’ve been working closely with our full-time dental professional staff and ever-expanding provider network to make the full range of dental products and professional care services more simple, accessible and enjoyable to more people. Our momentum is extremely strong, and this additional funding will allow us to further scale the business while investing more into growing our operations and talented team.”

Learn more about Quip on the company’s website.

Google Considers Shutting Down Google News in the EU to Avoid Link Tax 

The Guardian reports that Google may be considering shutting down Google News in the European Union to avoid paying tax on links created by new legislation. There is precedent for this action. In 2014, when the Spanish government tried to charge Google for links, Google shut down Google News in Spain. As a result, traffic to Spanish news websites dropped.

According to The Guardian, Google is “deeply concerned” about proposals that would compensate publishers anytime snippets of their news articles appeared in search results. Google has been lobbying against the Article 11 legislation and related Article 13 legislation. Richard Gringas, the vice president of news for Google, said the phrasing of the legislation will be the deciding factor.

“We can’t make a decision until we see the final language,” Gringas said in the article. 

If the proposed tax comes to fruition, Gringas believes it could have an impact on new media outlets trying to find an audience without Google’s indexing and search results.

At the same time, Google is being accused of breaking the EU’s privacy rules. MarketWatch reports that consumer groups from the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Slovenia said Google has violated the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which went into effect in May. The groups allege that Google is collecting location data on users of apps without being transparent about how the data will be used.

YouTube and YouTube Music Offer Discounted Student Subscriptions 

Speaking of Google, YouTube and YouTube Music are marketing their subscriptions to students with special discounts. Earlier this week, YouTube Music Premium dropped its price from $9.99 a month to $4.99 a month, after a free one-month trial, for eligible students.

YouTube Premium is also available for $5.99 a month for students who sign up by the end of January, and it is guaranteed for the duration of their student membership, up to four years. Students must verify their status via SheerID. Previously, YouTube Premium was $11.99 a month. YouTube Premium includes ad-free video.

A USA Today story published on Wednesday indicates that YouTube may be rethinking its subscription strategy and shifting back to free, ad-supported content. According to the article, YouTube will make more of its programming free, but it will include ads, and the Alphabet-owned company plans to cut back on its programming. It is not clear if this means Google (Alphabet) will do away with its YouTube Premium service, previously called YouTube Red, or if it is just trying to figure out the right pricing and product mix.