Yes it was. It affected several types of services, but in the area of telecommunications, for example, if consumers forgot to call their cable distributors a month before the end of the agreement, the agreement was automatically renewed. Obviously, many consumers forgot the expiry date of the agreement, which is normal, given that agendas rarely cover more than two consecutive years. They would forget to phone the company and were therefore stuck with a new contract that they had not really signed, and in addition, they did not have the opportunity to check what was actually offered. That did not encourage competition, it did not help consumers improve the quality of their choices, and it put them in a situation that did not benefit them.
So this is indeed a step forward.