Legislation will be drafted to ensure consumers find it easy to exit unwanted signups and to get a refund

Companies are to be forced to make it “simple and straightforward” for consumers to cancel unwanted subscriptions or get their money back under new rules to stamp out the so-called subscription traps that are costing Britons £1.6bn a year.

Justin Madders, the minister for employment rights, competition and markets at the Department for Business and Trade, told the Guardian: “We want to get money back into people’s pockets when they’ve signed up to things that they didn’t mean or want to.”