in effect
This is a final rule published by the Federal Trade Commission on February 12, 2026, that rolls back three previously issued FTC regulations in direct response to federal court decisions that struck those rules down. The FTC is not making new policy choices here — it is carrying out the outcomes courts already ordered by updating the official Code of Federal Regulations to match.
The Negative Option Rule (governing recurring subscriptions and automatic-enrollment plans) is reset to its pre-2024 text, dropping the stronger 2024 requirements around consent, cancellation mechanisms, and disclosure — because the Eighth Circuit vacated the 2024 version for failing to issue a required preliminary regulatory analysis. The CARS Rule, which had required car dealers to make accurate price disclosures, get informed consumer consent for add-on charges, and avoid certain misrepresentations, is fully withdrawn after the Fifth Circuit vacated it for the FTC’s failure to publish a required advance notice of proposed rulemaking. The Non-Compete Clause Rule, which would have banned most new non-compete agreements with workers starting September 4, 2024 and rendered most existing non-competes unenforceable, is removed from federal regulations entirely after courts ruled the FTC exceeded its statutory authority and acted arbitrarily. All three changes took effect the same day the rule published, February 12, 2026, with no public comment period, which the FTC justified as a ministerial step required by the court orders.
Businesses that sell subscription products or services return to operating under the older, narrower 1973-era negative option rules rather than the more demanding 2024 standards on cancellation and consent. Auto dealers are no longer subject to the CARS Rule’s disclosure and record-keeping requirements. Workers who had non-compete clauses in their employment contracts remain subject to whatever state law governs those agreements, since the federal ban never took effect and is now formally off the books.