Revision of the Negative Option Rule, Withdrawal of the CARS Rule, Removal of the Non-Compete Rule To Conform These Rules to Federal Court Decisions

What it does

In light of Federal court decisions, the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC" or "Commission") is taking final action to conform three of its recent rules to the results ordered by the courts. First, the Commission is revising its recently amended "Rule Concerning Recurring Subscriptions and Other Negative Option Programs" ("Negative Option Rule") to recodify the text of the Negative Option Rule as it existed before the effective date of the Commission's 2024 final rule amending it. Second, the Commission is withdrawing its final rule titled "Combating Auto Retail Scams Trade Regulation Rule" ("CARS Rule"). Third, the Commission is removing its "Non-Compete Clause Rule" ("Non-Compete Rule") from the Code of Federal Regulations.

The Federal Trade Commission's summary, as published in the Federal Register.

What changed in the regulation

3 parts of Title 16 of the Code of Federal Regulations:

16 CFR 425, 16 CFR 463, 16 CFR 910

Wording on eCFR: the day before it took effect and from the day it took effect (first part listed).

Compared with

The Federal Trade Commission has published 4 final rules in 2026 so far, compared with 4 in all of 2025.

Counted by the Tribune from Federal Register records since Jan. 1, 2025.

Before this

No earlier Federal Register document under regulation identifier 3084-AB60, 3084-AB74 since Jan. 1, 2025.

What happens next and when

This rule is effective February 12, 2026. The withdrawal of the Commission's final rule published at 89 FR 590 (Jan. 4, 2024) and delayed at 89 FR 13267 (Feb. 22, 2024) is also effective February 12, 2026.

The agency's dates, word for word.

Check it yourself

• The document in the Federal Register
• Docket FTC-2026-0133 on Regulations.gov
• Title 16 on eCFR

The record as published

Source: the Federal Register (public domain). The document in the Federal Register