Which place’s debt rules apply—and who can help?

S_MA PASS-03 — bounded source-access / coverage reconciliation

Research date: October 24, 2026, Pacific. Scope: correction and evidentiary reconciliation of PASS-02 only. No DMB, licensing, professional-rules, fee-cap, federal-baseline, or full-state investigation was reopened.

1. What PASS-02 actually had versus what it overstated

The PASS-02 record should be read more narrowly than its closing language suggested.

So the specific defect was real: PASS-02 jumped from selected indexed excerpts plus a source-table description to blanket language saying the entire operative rule was authenticated.

That blanket closure is corrected below.

2. Missing §38.05 continuity now recovered

A materially usable official Mass.gov indexed result now returns the previously undocumented page 256 of the final regulation.

Direct official document route: https://www.mass.gov/doc/940-cmr-38-unfair-and-deceptive-fees/download

940 CMR 38.05(1) — Trial Offers

The retrieved final passage requires clear, conspicuous written disclosure before acceptance of a Trial Offer of:

• potential financial obligations;
• all products that could create those obligations;
• how to reject/cancel;
• the calendar date by which cancellation must occur to avoid the obligation; and
• the date the obligation will arise absent cancellation.

Status: actual final-rule p.256 text retrieved. Massachusetts Government

940 CMR 38.05(2) — Negative Option disclosure before purchase

For a product with a Negative Option Feature, the final text requires written pre-purchase disclosure that:

• the consumer will be charged or charges will rise after an applicable trial;
• recurring charges will occur where applicable unless timely stopped; and
• cancellation instructions must identify a mechanism satisfying §38.05(3).

Status: actual final-rule p.256 text retrieved. Massachusetts Government

940 CMR 38.05(3) — Cancellation mechanism

The final text requires a simple mechanism allowing cancellation and immediate stopping of recurring charges. The mechanism must be at least as easy to access/use as enrollment and available through the same medium.

The recovered subsections specifically address:

• Internet cancellation through the same website/web application;
• telephone cancellation through an appropriate number, with calls promptly answered during normal business hours and without greater call cost; and
• in-person enrollment, for which compliant Internet or telephone cancellation must additionally be available and, where practical, a similar in-person method.

Status: complete §38.05(3) passage shown in the official indexed p.256 result. Massachusetts Government

940 CMR 38.05(4) — notice for Negative Option Features exceeding 31 days

The final rule requires written notice no more than 30 and no fewer than five calendar days before the cancellation deadline that would avoid a subsequent financial obligation.

The notice must clearly and conspicuously disclose:

• financial obligations if cancellation does not occur;
• affected products;
• the compliant cancellation mechanism;
• the cancellation deadline; and
• the date the new financial obligation will arise.

Status: actual complete §38.05(4) passage recovered from p.256. Massachusetts Government

Continuity into p.257

The official final-PDF indexed result for p.257 then supplies:

• §38.05(5): delivery-medium conditions for the >31-day notice;
• §38.05(6): alternative notice provisions for Negative Option Features of 31 days or less;
• §38.06: relation to other laws and regulations;
• §38.07: severability;
• §38.08: federal preemption; and
• §38.09: application to acts committed or practices in force as of September 2, 2025. Massachusetts Government

Accordingly, the specific p.256 hole in §38.05 is now closed. The p.256 and p.257 official indexed passages give continuous substantive access to §38.05(1)–(6).

That does not, by itself, prove that every word on every earlier page of the regulation was completely captured during PASS-02.

3. Precise reconciliation of the disputed claims

S_MA-P2-C008

Original: trial/negative-option rules apply only when those contractual features exist; ordinary finite installments are not proved to be negative options merely by payment frequency.

Disposition: Retain, strengthened

The missing operative bridge now exists:

• §38.05(1)–(4): p.256 newly recovered;
• §38.05(5)–(6): p.257 substantively returned;
• the previously retrieved definition of Negative Option Feature remains the predicate.

The finite-installment proposition remains a bounded application, not literal regulatory language. The AGO's official guidance also expressly distinguishes installment contracts from Negative Option Features: a negative option permits continuing product/charges unless the consumer affirmatively cancels, whereas an installment contract can simply require payment of an already-fixed contractual obligation. Massachusetts Government

Patched confidence: High for §38.05's actual requirements; bounded-high for the installment/negative-option distinction.

S_MA-P2-C013

Original: the 403 was a retrieval limitation rather than evidence that the regulation was unavailable or unverified as law.

Disposition: Retain but narrow

Corrected formulation:

The direct Mass.gov binary's 403 is a retrieval limitation, not contrary legal evidence. Official Mass.gov indexed final-PDF passages now substantively establish p.256 §38.05(1)–(4) and p.257 §38.05(5)–(6), §§38.06–38.09. Those excerpts establish the clauses actually returned; they do not make the inaccessible binary equivalent to a complete page-by-page inspection of the whole final rule.

Patched confidence: High.

S_MA-P1-C032 / PASS-02 patch

PASS-02 said this claim was:

“Materially resolved and superseded … Final §§38.01–38.09 authenticated…”

Disposition: Downgrade the blanket closure

Correct replacement:

Partially resolved, with the principal §38.05 continuity defect now resolved. PASS-02 recorded substantive indexed final-text access for pp.253–255 and p.257, and PASS-03 has now directly recovered the previously undocumented p.256 §38.05(1)–(4). Thus §38.05(1)–(6), §38.06, §38.07, §38.08 and §38.09 are substantively supported by official final-rule indexed passages. However, the prior statement that all final §§38.01–38.09 were completely authenticated was broader than the preserved access evidence warrants. A collection-grade claim of complete operative-text authentication still requires a documented full capture of every operative passage—particularly complete page-level preservation of pp.253–255 rather than relying solely on PASS-02's source-table representation.

This correction does not disturb the propositions actually supported by those earlier retrieved clauses.

S_MA-P1-C034

Disposition: Retain with no substantive downgrade

The date distinction remains supported:

• March 14, 2025 = Massachusetts Register/final filing-adoption chronology previously identified;
• September 2, 2025 = §38.09's express application date. Massachusetts Government

The dates are not interchangeable.

The later-history finding remains only:

No later amendment/proposal was located in the public sources searched.

It is not:

“There definitively were no amendments.”

A prospective-notice index cannot alone provide exhaustive currentness certification.

4. PASS-03 source table

5. PASS-03 claim table

6. Old-claim and coverage patch map

Corrected coverage-row wording

Recover final operative 940 CMR 38 text — PARTIAL, substantially supported. Official final indexed passages substantiate the retrieved provisions, and PASS-03 closes the missing §38.05 p.256 continuity through §38.05(1)–(4), together with previously/audited p.257 §38.05(5)–(6) and §§38.06–38.09. Do not characterize the complete rule as page-by-page authenticated until complete final passages for the earlier pages are preserved at the same evidentiary standard. Direct binary access remains unsuccessful and exhaustive amendment-history certification remains open.

7. Remaining-scope table

Researcher self-check

I newly retrieved only what was necessary to repair the identified access problem: the official final-rule p.256 §38.05(1)–(4) passage, the official p.257 continuation for confirmation, and narrowly relevant AGO guidance concerning the installment/Negative Option distinction. I did not rerun the Massachusetts overview.

I have distinguished PASS-02 reported prior reads from new PASS-03 reads. In particular, I am not retroactively claiming a new inspection of every word on pp.253–255. PASS-02's preserved source table said those pages were substantively indexed; the current correction does not turn that assertion into a fresh access event.

The direct Mass.gov binary's prior 403 and State Library archive binary's coordinator-reported 405 remain access limitations. They are neither contrary legal authority nor proof of complete document inspection. No access workaround was attempted.

The substantive clauses actually retrieved remain valid evidence at their precise scope. Accordingly, §38.09's September 2, 2025 date and §38.06's relation-to-other-law provisions are not downgraded merely because the binary file cannot be opened.

The earlier blanket statement that the entire operative rule was fully authenticated is withdrawn in favor of the narrower formulation above. Likewise, the later-amendment search remains expressly bounded, not an exhaustive currentness certification.

No independent review, local save, publication readiness, full-state completion, provider authorization, DMB resolution, numeric fee cap, or A066 acceptance is claimed.

END S_MA PASS-03.