Stripe and the UK subscription rules
Updated Invalid Date. Based on the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 and the draft 2026 Regulations and guidance. Not legal advice.
Stripe Billing can send some customer emails and host a cancellation page. Its documentation refers to US federal and California rules and card-network trial rules; we found no mention of the UK DMCCA (checked 5 November 2026, Stripe customer emails).
What Stripe covers and what it does not
| UK duty | Stripe Billing today |
|---|---|
| Reminder before the first charge after a free trial | Trial-ending email at a fixed 7 days before the trial ends |
| Six-monthly reminders for monthly plans | No: renewal reminders use one account-wide setting, not the six-month rule |
| Additional earlier reminder for annual plans | No |
| All ten reminder details (previous amount, increase, minimum total, deadline) | Not documented; email body is not editable per Stripe docs |
| Renewal cooling-off notice after trial conversion or annual renewal | No |
| End-of-contract confirmation within 24 hours | Cancellation emails exist but are not built to the UK content rules |
| Proportionate refund | Manual or via API |
| Evidence that each notice was sent | Customer email logs cover 60 days |
| Online cancellation | Yes, through the customer portal if you enable cancellation |
Who is responsible
The business the customer contracts with stays responsible even when payments run through a platform. Using Stripe does not move the duty to Stripe.
Closing the gap
You can build the schedule yourself from the reminder rules, using Stripe webhooks and your own email provider, and keep a log. Or install Renewproof, which reads your Stripe subscriptions, finds UK customers and sends each notice on time with a fingerprinted evidence log.
Renewproof sends these notices from your Stripe account, on schedule, with an evidence log. Pre-order for $1 or try the reminder calculator.