Utility Warehouse - sneaky tactic?

reheat

Just looked at my December Utility Warehouse bill, and lo and behold there is a new bill item, Bill Protector, for £2. Turns out it's a form of accidental death cover, which you can optionally sign up to ... except they seem to have "optionally" done it for me without bothering to ask! Sneaky. There are lots of different levels of cover you can select, including "No Thanks" ... but for some curious reason they don't automatically set it to that one for you.

I've gone in and unsubscribed immediately, but had to ask for them to remove it from the Dec bill.

Is it actually legal to sign people up for this sort of thing without asking them first?

I cannot help think it's a cold blooded cynical marketing ploy, knowing that many people either don't bother checking their bills, or don't check them carefully enough?