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Unfair Subscription Practice – Charged Without Clear Consent Since January 2026

John Kwak

I am writing to share my experience and raise a serious concern about what I believe is an unfair and potentially unlawful billing practice by Logos Bible Software.

In January 2026, I ordered a free book listed as available for subscribers. At the time, I was not an active subscriber. Without my clear knowledge or explicit consent, Logos automatically added a subscription plan to my cart in order to include the free book. When I completed the checkout, a 30-day free trial was initiated — without a clear and prominent notice that I was signing up for a recurring paid subscription.

After the free trial ended, I was charged monthly subscription fees continuously from January 2026 onward. I only discovered these charges recently when reviewing my email. When I contacted customer support requesting a full refund for all charges since January, I was told that only the most recent payment (April 28, 2026) could be refunded as a one-time exception, and that all prior charges were non-refundable per their return policy.

I believe this practice is fundamentally wrong — and here is why:

The proper and transparent approach should be: if a non-subscriber attempts to order a free subscriber book, the checkout page must clearly and prominently disclose the subscription requirement, require the customer to actively and explicitly sign up for the subscription, and if the customer does not agree to subscribe, they should not be able to complete the free book order. Simply bundling a subscription into the cart and relying on a buried notice that "subscription begins after 30 days" does not constitute informed consent. It is a deceptive enrollment practice.

This type of practice — often called "negative option marketing" — is directly addressed by U.S. federal law and regulation:

The FTC's Negative Option Rule (16 CFR Part 425) and its 2024 "Click-to-Cancel" amendments require businesses to clearly and conspicuously disclose all material terms of a negative option offer BEFORE obtaining the consumer's billing information, and to obtain the consumer's express informed consent before charging them.
The Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act (ROSCA), 15 U.S.C. §§ 8401-8405, prohibits charging consumers in online transactions without clearly disclosing all material terms and obtaining express informed consent. This applies precisely to situations where a subscription is added to a transaction without the consumer's affirmative agreement.
The FTC Act Section 5 prohibits unfair or deceptive acts or practices. Automatically enrolling a consumer into a paid subscription by bundling it into a free item checkout — without prominent disclosure and active opt-in — falls squarely within this prohibition.

Logos' current practice appears to violate these consumer protection standards. A Christian organization, of all institutions, should hold itself to the highest standard of transparency and honesty in its business dealings.

I am respectfully requesting a full refund of all subscription charges from January 2026 to the present. If this cannot be resolved, I will have no choice but to file a formal complaint with the FTC (reportfraud.ftc.gov) and pursue other available remedies.

I hope Logos will do the right thing and address this matter with the integrity its customers deserve.

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Comments

JJ Wurtz

Why did you order the free book for subscribers if you weren't a subscriber? Were you planning on paying for the book? I believe when you did that, you kind of set yourself up to become a subscriber. Just a thought

John Kwak

I have been a Logos Bible Software customer since 2010 — over 15 years. Some in this forum are asking "why did you order the free book?" but that question completely misses the point.

The free monthly book has long been a routine benefit offered to Logos users. Anyone who has used Logos for any length of time knows that claiming the free book was practically a habit — something long-time users did as a matter of course. The issue is not that I claimed a free book. The issue is that I was automatically enrolled in a paid subscription without ever clicking a subscribe button or giving any explicit consent.

Under a legitimate subscription model, a company sends an email near the end of a free trial period, gives the consumer a clear choice, and — critically — blocks access to the free benefit entirely if the consumer has not actively opted in. Logos bypassed all of this. Instead, they used a familiar, routine action that long-time customers had performed countless times before, and quietly treated it as subscription consent. That is not an oversight. That is a deliberate deceptive practice that exploits customer habit and trust.

And this is not merely a complaint — it is a description of conduct that U.S. federal law explicitly prohibits:

First, the FTC's Negative Option Rule (16 CFR Part 425) and its 2024 "Click-to-Cancel" amendments require businesses to clearly and conspicuously disclose all material terms of a negative option offer before obtaining the consumer's billing information, and to obtain express, informed consent before charging. Logos did not meet this standard.

Second, the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act (ROSCA), 15 U.S.C. §§ 8401–8405, explicitly prohibits charging consumers in online transactions without clearly disclosing all material terms and obtaining their express informed consent. Bundling a subscription enrollment into a free item checkout — without prominent disclosure and active opt-in — is precisely the conduct this law was designed to address.

Third, FTC Act Section 5 prohibits unfair or deceptive acts or practices in commerce. Automatically enrolling a consumer into a paid subscription by embedding it into a familiar free-item checkout flow, without clear disclosure or affirmative agreement, falls squarely within this prohibition.

I am not raising this issue out of confusion or carelessness. I am raising it because a company I trusted for over 15 years exploited that trust through a practice that is not only ethically wrong, but legally indefensible. The question worth asking is not why I ordered a free book — it is why Logos chose to use that action as a backdoor into a paid subscription without my knowledge or consent.

JJ Wurtz

I understand what you are saying, and honestly, quoting legal jargon doesn't do for me. I know on the Logos.com site you have two options for downloading books free, "This Month's Free Book & More" & "Subscriber-Exclusive Free Book." Did you download the 1st one or the 2nd one? If you downloaded the 1st one, I can see your issue; if you downloaded the 2nd one, I can see why you might have been auto-subscribed.

I'll also add that I'm a Verbum user, where we get 1 book a month, Logos users get 3. Being that halfway through the month, they change the Subscriber book.

Lastly, I was told when I was younger that you get more with honey than vinegar. Quoting the legal jargon typically doesn't get someone's attention and make them want to help you as much as they could.

God bless, and good luck fighting this fight.

John Kwak

Thank you for your thoughtful response and for sharing your perspective.

I want to clarify that my concern is not primarily about the refund itself. My issue is about the principle behind the marketing practice.

Logos is a name that carries deep theological meaning, and this platform has long served as a trusted tool for studying God's Word. Over the past 15 years, I have been genuinely grateful for and proud of what Logos has represented — both in quality and in integrity.

That is precisely why I find it troubling when the enrollment process for a paid subscription is not presented with full clarity to the user. A practice that lacks transparency may be legally questionable in many jurisdictions, but more importantly, it is inconsistent with the values that a ministry-oriented organization like Logos has always stood for.

When I reached out to the support team, the responses I received addressed only the existing policy, without acknowledging the concern I raised about how that policy is communicated to users. I understand that policies exist for good reasons, but policies that are not clearly disclosed before a user takes action are a different matter.

I raise this not out of frustration, but out of respect for what Logos has been and what I believe it should continue to be. Small compromises in transparency, if left unaddressed, can gradually erode the trust that takes years to build.

I hope this feedback is received in the spirit it is intended — as a sincere concern from a long-time user who still believes in the mission of this platform.

Don Awalt

Good luck with your complaint. I'll bet money Logos can easily show it was prominently displayed what the terms and conditions were for making the purchase, if it ever gets that far.

DMB

It's clear now; but back at the start of 2nd free book = subscribe, I almost got caught. Whew.

I've learned not to go near Logos subscribe buttons. Since I use an older version, I'm not sure what might happen.

The comment, two menu options; it's also presented under free monthly book.

John

@John Kwak A Christian organization, of all institutions, should hold itself to the highest standard of transparency and honesty in its business dealings.

Logos is under new ownership now. While there may still be many Christian people employed by the company, its leadership has made many decisions in the last couple of years that disqualify it from the high standard you propose.

If you truly believe Logos is a "Christian" organization, then you are not at liberty to sue them in court (1 Cor 6:1-8) … correct?

They use both the carrot and the stick to corral "Legacy users" like us into the cart to sign up for a subscription. You went for a carrot and they got you.

The cart and checkout area of the website has caused many to stumble, including myself. Most recently, it was promising me a free trial that I did not qualify for when attempting to claim it.

There are other companies that have suffered legal consequences for making it difficult or impossible to cancel a subscription. But I'm pretty sure Logos will avoid any real pain, since they can claim here they allowed you to cancel as soon as you asked. Their no-refund policy on subscriptions is already known.

Good luck in your quest for justice.