4K
Menu
Look up a company

Costco

Retail

48

out of 100. Number 231 of 512, counting from the worst.

  • Arbitration 0 of 20, good
  • Renewals 11 of 20
  • Data sharing 12 of 20
  • Price & terms 12 of 15, bad
  • Data retention 6 of 15
  • Other findings 7 of 10, bad

Where Costco does well

  • Arbitration 0 of 20. Nothing found.
  • No forced arbitration or class-action waiver; easy auto-renew cancellation (online, at the counter, 1-800-774-2678, chat).
  • Membership-fee satisfaction guarantee (refundable any time); no sensitive-data sale; a dedicated "Your Privacy Choices" opt-out page.

Rules rewritten with zero notice; visiting the site counts as agreeing.

The fine print

6 clauses and findings from the draft archive, dated 1 October 2026. The plain English comes first; the small print is the company's own words. None of these has been checked yet.

  1. Rules rewritten with zero notice; visiting the site counts as agreeing.

    Costco reserves the right to modify these Site Terms in our sole discretion from time to time and only Costco has the right to do so. … Any changes or modification will be effective upon posting of the Site Terms as revised, and your use of the Sites following the posting will constitute your acceptance of the new Site Terms.

    Costco Terms and Conditions of Use §B (page updated March 30, 2026)

  2. Even after checkout, they can kill your order on a misprice.

    [We] reserve the right to cancel, to terminate or not to process orders (including accepted orders) where the price or other material information on the Sites is inaccurate or when we recognize abuse of our policies.

    Terms §F

  3. Miss a 3-day window, you're charged; renew lapsed and you pay retroactively for dead months.

    You must cancel your auto renewal at least 72 hours prior to the first day of your renewal month to avoid being charged. / Memberships renewed within 2 months after expiration of the current membership year will be extended for 12 months from the expiration date.

    Member Privileges and Conditions

  4. Quit/downgrade and earned 2% rewards get clawed out of your refund.

    A member must be a current, paid Executive Member at the end of the membership year to be entitled to the Reward. / Any 2% Reward issued or accrued will be subtracted from the refund and forfeited to the extent it exceeds the amount of any refund.

    costco.com/executive-rewards.html

  5. Purchase/browsing data shared with advertisers and suppliers for marketing; opt-out is on you.

    Commercial Information: to advertising, marketing, and analytics providers; and to suppliers for marketing purposes / Internet or Electronic Network Activity Information: to advertising, marketing, and analytics providers and to suppliers for marketing purposes.

    Costco Privacy Policy

  6. Reviews/photos/ideas become theirs forever, commercially, for free.

    You further hereby grant… a perpetual, royalty-free, irrevocable, unrestricted, non-exclusive, world-wide, assignable, sub-licensable, right and license to use, copy, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish… the Submissions… for any purpose whatsoever, commercial or otherwise… without providing compensation to you.

    Terms §K.2

How these were found

Privacy policy is JS-rendered — privacy findings from a search-engine crawl of the official page cross-checked against Costco Australia's policy; Terms of Use + Member Privileges read in full live on Oct 1, 2026.

These notes come from the original draft and are not independent verification.