Norton dodges UK courts after telling Brit watchdog it will be nicer to consumers
Admits nothing but promises amendments to auto-renewal, refund policies - 14 Jun 2021
The CMA is investigating the anti-virus software sector following concerns that some firms in the industry may not be complying with consumer law. Published 19 December 2018 | Last updated 14 June 2021
I'm still not clear exactly what changes have been made to the automatic renewal policy, especially for customers that live outside the UK.
I read the 14-Jun-2021 update to the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) case against NortonLifeLock UK and NortonLifeLock Ireland at https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/anti-virus-software and the only significant changes I can see are that:
A customer whose contract has auto-renewed can now obtain a pro-rated refund of the amount they have been charged, after their existing refund window has expired. This new right will also be extended to customers who asked for a refund in 2020, but were refused
Refunds will be available through an automated system to make it simple and easy for customers
Customers will be told the price they will be charged prior to auto-renewal
If the price will be higher on auto-renewal, NortonLifeLock will not give the impression that the initial price represents a saving
I might be wrong, but it looks like customers will still have to provide a credit card number and opt in to auto-renewal by default (i.e, even if they've purchase a product key from an authorized third-party reseller and paid in cash or debit) before NortonLifeLock will activate their product key. At this point I'm not even sure changes agreed to in this settlement like pro-rated refunds for auto-renewing customers and a simplified automated refund system will even apply to customers outside the UK.
To cancel, Sign in to your account and visit the My Subscriptions tab to manage your renewal settings. You can also talk to our Support team.
For Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan: If your order number starts with APXXXXXXXX or NPXXXXXXXX or if you have Norton 360 Standard Plus, follow the steps above to cancel your automatically renewing subscription. If your order number is different, visit your Norton store to manage your update settings. You will need your order number and email address when you ordered.
If you choose to cancel subscription renewal on your current protection, you must manually renew your subscription before it expires or risk losing it.
If you have already been charged and want to request a refund contact Member Services and Support.