Regulated by Trading Standards

How to complain to NOW TV

Digital subscriptions generate two recurring complaints: being charged after cancelling, and a service that does not work as sold. The Consumer Rights Act has a dedicated digital content chapter that most people have never heard of, and the payment side gives you a route through your bank that does not depend on the provider replying at all.

The rights that apply when you complain to NOW TV

NOW TV is a UK streaming and digital subscription service, so the rules below are the ones that decide your complaint. Each is named, because a letter that cites the specific rule is handled by a different team to one that does not.

Digital content must be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described, exactly as physical goods must be. Consumer Rights Act 2015, sections 34, 35 and 36
Where digital content is faulty you are entitled to a repair or replacement, and if that is impossible or fails, a price reduction of up to the full amount paid. Consumer Rights Act 2015, sections 42 and 44
If the provider or something it supplied damages your device or other digital content, it must repair the damage or compensate you. Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 46
A term buried in the small print that you had no real opportunity to see is not binding on you, and a term causing a significant imbalance against you contrary to good faith is unfair and unenforceable. Consumer Rights Act 2015, Part 2, sections 62 and 68
If you cancelled and were charged anyway, that is an unauthorised payment. Your bank must refund it by the end of the next business day after you report it, and the burden is on the payment provider to prove you authorised it. Payment Services Regulations 2017, regulations 75 and 76
A subscription bought online carries a 14-day cancellation right, although you lose it once you expressly agree to immediate supply and acknowledge that you are giving the right up. Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013

The deadlines that decide your claim

14 days — the cancellation window

From the day you sign up, unless you clicked through an acknowledgement that immediate access ends the right, which most services now include.

Next business day — the unauthorised charge refund

A charge taken after you cancelled is an unauthorised payment. Report it to your bank and the refund obligation bites immediately, without waiting for the service to respond.

120 days — the chargeback window

The usual card scheme limit for raising a chargeback, measured from the transaction date.

What to put in the letter to NOW TV

Complaints teams work from a script. The detail below is what moves a case off that script and onto the desk of someone who can authorise a remedy.

The account email and the exact date and method of cancellation, with a screenshot or confirmation email if you have one.
Every charge taken after that date, listed with amounts.
For a service fault, when it started, what devices you tried, and the provider’s own status page if it confirms an outage.
What you want: a refund of every post-cancellation charge, and confirmation in writing that the subscription is closed.

If NOW TV says no, or says nothing

Escalate to chargeback, section 75 or the small claims court.

When you can go: There is no ombudsman for this sector, so once the company has given you its final answer the next step is your card provider or the county court.

How long you have: Chargeback is normally 120 days from the transaction or from when you expected delivery. A court claim is six years from the breach in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, five in Scotland.

What it costs: Chargeback and section 75 are free. A money claim under £300 costs £35 to issue online, rising with the value of the claim.

Whether it binds NOW TV: A county court judgment is binding and enforceable. A chargeback can be reversed by the merchant, a section 75 claim can be taken to the Financial Ombudsman if the card issuer refuses it.

Worth knowing before you start

There is no ombudsman for streaming services, and most are contracted through an overseas entity, which makes a court claim more awkward than usual. That is why the payment route matters more here than the complaint route. Cancel the continuous payment authority with your bank, which you are entitled to do directly under the Payment Services Regulations, rather than relying on the provider to stop taking money.

Common questions

I cancelled and they charged me anyway. What is the fastest fix?

Go to your bank rather than the provider. A payment taken after you withdrew your consent is an unauthorised payment under regulation 67 and regulation 76 of the Payment Services Regulations 2017, and your bank must refund it by the end of the next business day after you report it. You can also instruct your bank to cancel the continuous payment authority directly, and the bank must do it. It cannot tell you to sort it out with the merchant first.

The service keeps buffering or the content I subscribed for has been removed. Is that a breach?

Possibly. Sections 34 to 36 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 require digital content to be of satisfactory quality, fit for the purpose you made known, and as described. If you subscribed specifically for a title that has been pulled, or the service is persistently unusable, section 42 entitles you to a repair or, where that is not possible, a price reduction that can go up to the full price. Log the dates and the failures before you complain.

They say the free trial auto-renewal was in the terms. Does that settle it?

Not automatically. Under Part 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, a term is not binding if it was not transparent and prominent, and an auto-renewal term buried where a reasonable consumer would not see it can be challenged on that basis. Whether it succeeds depends on how the sign-up screen was designed. Take a screenshot of the flow if it is still available.

Can the price go up mid-subscription?

A rolling monthly subscription is a series of short contracts, so a provider can normally change the price for the next period as long as it gives you clear advance notice and a real chance to cancel first. What it cannot do is change the price without notice, or make cancellation unreasonably difficult. Where notice was not given, treat the extra as an unauthorised amount and raise it with your bank.

Where this comes from

Every rule on this page is drawn from primary legislation, a regulator, or an approved dispute resolution scheme. Check them yourself.

Paybacker is not a law firm and this is not legal advice. It is a summary of the published rules that apply to a streaming and digital subscription service, so that you can put your own case properly. For a dispute of real value, or anything turning on facts unique to you, speak to a solicitor or Citizens Advice.

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