CheckoutClear

A browser extension that intercepts subscription checkout pages and surfaces auto-renewal terms, pre-checked boxes, and early termination fees in a plain-English pop-up — before you click "Subscribe."

Problem

At the moment a consumer clicks "Subscribe," the auto-renewal disclosure is buried in gray-on-white footnotes, the 12-month commitment is marketed as "just $X/month," and early termination fees appear only in a linked terms page nobody opens. An ICPEN sweep across 27 countries in 2024 found that 75.7% of subscription platforms use at least one dark pattern and 66.8% use two or more — the average subscription takes 1–2 clicks to start but 6.7 clicks to cancel. The FTC's January 13, 2026 complaint against JustAnswer alleges the company enrolls consumers in monthly subscriptions without clear consent and charges higher fees than disclosed. Existing subscription managers link to a bank account to catch charges after the fact; nothing lives in the browser at the exact moment of commitment.

Target user

Online shoppers and SaaS trial starters — anyone on a pricing or checkout page seconds away from entering card details. The job to be done: understand what they are actually agreeing to before clicking confirm, not six months later when a renewal charge lands with no warning.

MVP scope

• Manifest V3 content script fires on pages matching checkout/payment URL patterns (checkout, pricing, subscribe, billing, trial)
• Parses visible and low-contrast page text for auto-renewal disclosures, early termination fee (ETF) clauses, and trial-to-paid conversion language
• Detects pre-checked subscription opt-in boxes and flags them with a yellow border
• Renders an intercept card anchored above the primary CTA showing: renewal term, renewal price, renewal date, ETF amount if present, and a projected 12-month total cost
• Toolbar badge: green (terms clearly disclosed before payment), yellow (disclosure buried or ambiguous), red (auto-renewal present but not prominently disclosed)
• "Copy plain-English summary" button so the user can paste the extracted terms into any notes app

Monetization

Freemium. Free tier: unlimited real-time checkout scans, toolbar badge, and intercept card. Pro ($4/mo or $29/year): persistent subscription history log, total annual spend projection across all active commitments, renewal-date push reminders, and a one-click "draft cancel email" template generator. Affiliate channel: opt-in hand-off to cancellation services (Rocket Money, DoNotPay) on a per-referral fee.

Why now

The FTC filed against JustAnswer on January 13, 2026 — the latest in a string of ROSCA enforcement actions that also include a $2.5 billion Amazon settlement (2025). On January 30, 2026, the FTC submitted a new Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on negative-option subscriptions, a second attempt at rules the Eighth Circuit vacated on procedural grounds in July 2025. The EU's Digital Fairness Act draft, expected Q3 2026, will require cancellation to be at least as easy as sign-up. These stories are mainstream consumer news, priming users to actively seek a checkout-stage guard; no Manifest V3 extension occupies this exact position today.

Risks & open questions

• Checkout pages use heterogeneous HTML; regex and DOM pattern matching will miss edge cases on heavily customized or dynamically rendered pages
• Payment iframes (Stripe, Braintree, PayPal) load in sandboxed contexts that MV3 content scripts cannot read, leaving hosted payment flows partly blind
• Merchants may serve different page content to extension-detected browsers once adoption grows
• Free-to-Pro conversion may be structurally low — the pain is invisible until a charge appears, by which time users have forgotten they installed the extension
• Regulatory success (better disclosure mandates) is the desired outcome but also shrinks the extension's value proposition over time

Next step

Promote to weekly prototype — build a content script that runs on five live subscription checkout pages (Spotify, Hulu, Adobe, Microsoft 365, JustAnswer) and renders the renewal intercept card accurately on all five.

Sources

• https://www.arnoldporter.com/en/perspectives/advisories/2026/02/ftc-and-state-ags-continue-to-scrutinize-subscription-practices — FTC January 2026 ANPRM and enforcement action timeline
• https://toslawyer.com/auto-renewal-and-subscription-compliance-what-saas-and-e-commerce-companies-must-fix-in-2026/ — ICPEN sweep statistics, state-law disclosure standards, and recent penalty examples