Tuesday, June 18th 2024

US Government Sues Adobe Over Shady Business Practices: Hidden Fees and Subscriptions Too Hard to Cancel

by
AleksandarK
 Discuss (34 Comments)
The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has taken legal action against software giant Adobe and two of its top executives for allegedly deceiving consumers about the actual costs of its popular subscription services and deliberately obstructing cancellations. In a federal court complaint filed by the Department of Justice at the FTC's request, the commission accuses Adobe of obscuring hefty early termination fees and making it excessively difficult for customers to cancel their subscriptions. The complaint alleges that when signing up for subscriptions on Adobe's website, the company steers consumers toward the "annual paid monthly" option, pre-selecting it as the default while burying details about the 50% early termination fee for canceling within the first year. Customers have lodged numerous complaints, saying they were unaware the plan committed them for a full year.

According to the FTC, even when customers did attempt to cancel, Adobe forced them to navigate a bureaucratic maze of web pages, unhelpful customer service reps, dropped calls, and transfers. Some customers who thought they had successfully canceled continued to be charged. Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, noted, "Adobe trapped customers into year-long subscriptions through hidden early termination fees and numerous cancellation hurdles." The complaint charges that these deceptive "dark patterns" violate the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act. It names Adobe's President of Digital Media, David Wadhwani, and Vice President Maninder Sawhney as co-defendants for their oversight roles in these shady business practices.
Source: FTC

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34 Comments on US Government Sues Adobe Over Shady Business Practices: Hidden Fees and Subscriptions Too Hard to Cancel

#1
P4-630
Old news by now, but yes it's a good thing they sue Adobe...
Posted on Reply
#2
b1k3rdude
Might be old news, but this should have happened well before now. Adobe have for a long while, been overtly monopolistic and predatory and should have been taken down several pegs already, so better late than never..?
Posted on Reply
#3
64K
That is some truly low-life scumbaggery. If all of that is true then they deserve to get hit with a large fine. I know it probably will just be a slap on the wrist but even so that kind of crap has to be punished if for no other reason than to discourage other companies from practices like that.
Posted on Reply
#4
Prima.Vera
Finally. But I fear that those fines will be just symbolic slap on the wrist for this callous company.
Posted on Reply
#5
Gigaherz
Adobe is an evil company and every action towards its downfall is a welcome one. They need to go.
Posted on Reply
#6
Daven
64KThat is some truly low-life scumbaggery. If all of that is true then they deserve to get hit with a large fine. I know it probably will just be a slap on the wrist but even so that kind of crap has to be punished if for no other reason than to discourage other companies from practices like that.
Ignore the fine. Its stopping the shady business practices permanently that matters.
Posted on Reply
#7
Icon Charlie
Ahhh Adobe... how I dispise you well. You were one of the companies that made me transition from my Mac SE 30 to PC back in the 90's as Apple software needed a blood sacrafice from your wallet.

Photoshop was always a good product but screw you I am not paying for your nonsense. And then you went suscription based and I said forget it for even looking into it. Now they want to take your content that is on their cloud server and make them their own??? Oh hell no.

I went with Corel for many years and I am now learning to use Krita software for me content creation.

Apple.
Adobe.
Pantone.

They are all good products, but they want you too believe that they are absolutely needed in creating content. But that is not true...
Not true at all.
Posted on Reply
#8
Daven
Prima.VeraFinally. But I fear that those fines will be just symbolic slap on the wrist for this callous company.
Everyone should stop focusing on the fine. Permanent injunction if the court finds they violate the ROSCA act!!! From Macrumors:

“According to the DoJ, Adobe's setup violates the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act (ROSCA) through the use of fine print and inconspicuous hyperlinks to hide information about the Early Termination Fee.
The complaint alleges that for years, Adobe has profited from this hidden fee, misleading consumers about the true costs of a subscription and ambushing them with the fee when they try to cancel, wielding the fee as a powerful retention tool.
The complaint alleges that Adobe has further violated ROSCA by failing to provide consumers with a simple mechanism to cancel their recurring, online subscriptions. Instead, Adobe allegedly protects its subscription revenues by thwarting subscribers' attempts to cancel, subjecting them to a convoluted and inefficient cancellation process filled with unnecessary steps, delays, unsolicited offers and warnings.
The lawsuit asks for "unspecified amounts of consumer redress" along with monetary civil penalties and a permanent injunction that would prevent Adobe from continuing to use hidden fees to thwart customer cancelations.”

Emphasis mine.

www.macrumors.com/2024/06/17/us-government-sues-adobe-hidden-fees/
Posted on Reply
#9
Random_User
GigaherzAdobe is an evil company and every action towards its downfall is a welcome one. They need to go.
The faster they go, or shrink, the faster "pro" crowd will be forced to seek for an option, that respects their rights. And eventually it might bring the "Blender"-like alternative to each product Adobe has currently. Might as well improve the linux adoption, because... why not, if the house got burning anyway.
Posted on Reply
#11
Darmok N Jalad
As an amateur photographer, I've considered signing up for Adobe LR, but that subscription model has always been a turn-off. I almost went through with the free trial, but I stopped short when it asked for my payment method just to do the measly 7-day trial. I'm sure glad I did, because I never picked up on this "gotcha." Every other company gives you a 30-day trial, and typically you only need to give them an email address, and when your 30 days expire, you can either buy or uninstall, no trickery. Oh, and they let you actually buy the software license. On1,CaptureOne, DxO are all very capable without the need to subscribe.
Posted on Reply
#13
bonehead123
'Bout...

Friggin...

Time...

I ditched all their products as soon as they started the "cloud/ creative suite" thing years ago, cause I knew where it was headed, but the only issue that would concern me here is what would happen to the PDF format if Adobe gets into deep doodoo with the guv'enment....hopefully it will remain unscathed, but you never know what people/companies will do when their backs are against the wall....
Posted on Reply
#14
lexluthermiester
bonehead123'Bout...

Friggin...

Time...
Right? Took long enough...
Icon CharlieApple.
Adobe.
Pantone.
Don't forget Amazon. Ever tried to cancel a Prime membership? Good luck with that.
Posted on Reply
#15
Onasi
R0H1TWhile you're at it why not sue Apple for not allowing 3p app stores, unless that's already in the works?
www.macrumors.com/2024/06/14/eu-plans-to-fine-apple-over-dma-report
www.macrumors.com/2024/06/14/japan-passes-law-to-allow-third-party-app-stores

Apple needs to be brought at least a couple of pegs down, same goes for MS (to a lesser extent) as well as Google, Nvidia et al.
Apple already bent the knee on that and the latest iOS version allows 3p stores… in the markets that mandate it only, of course, they can’t be TOO accepting.
Random_UserThe faster they go, or shrink, the faster "pro" crowd will be forced to seek for an option, that respects their rights. And eventually it might bring the "Blender"-like alternative to each product Adobe has currently. Might as well improve the linux adoption, because... why not, if the house got burning anyway.
The fact that some of their software straight up has no alternatives is a crime. You can get by without PS. Sure. But if you are in desktop publishing, good luck finding anything beyond InDesign that would work as well AND be universally accepted and supported.
Posted on Reply
#16
diatribe
A 50% early termination fee is unconscionable! Let alone the requirement to pay for a monthly or yearly license. Let's go back to licensing for software where you get to use that version forever.
Posted on Reply
#17
Romoredux
They need to reign in Ubisoft and all these other Video Game Companies.
Posted on Reply
#18
R0H1T
OnasiApple already bent the knee on that and the latest iOS version allows 3p stores
They really didn't that's why EU's going after them hard this time! And why do you you need a tap smack to follow regulations all the time, as they were intended?
Posted on Reply
#19
Onasi
R0H1TThey really didn't that's why EU's going after them hard this time! And why do you you need a tap smack to follow regulations all the time, as they were intended?
Because we live in a cyberpunk dystopia and trans-national companies believe they have more powers than the governments and can get away with doing whatever, and what’s terrifying is that in many cases they are right?
I am not actually being funny or snarky, this legitimately feels what we are going towards.
Posted on Reply
#20
R0H1T
I haven't really played it so can't say much about that but similar to Fallout as well I guess? The only "good" thing atm is that none of them have nukes or any other WMD as of now ~ of course with "AI" it's probably only a matter of time :shadedshu:

If you have the means to be the most power entity in the world why wouldn't you use it? The next CEO of Evil Corp right now :pimp:
Posted on Reply
#22
unwind-protect
Go feds!
Darmok N JaladAs an amateur photographer, I've considered signing up for Adobe LR, but that subscription model has always been a turn-off. I almost went through with the free trial, but I stopped short when it asked for my payment method just to do the measly 7-day trial. I'm sure glad I did, because I never picked up on this "gotcha." Every other company gives you a 30-day trial, and typically you only need to give them an email address, and when your 30 days expire, you can either buy or uninstall, no trickery. Oh, and they let you actually buy the software license. On1,CaptureOne, DxO are all very capable without the need to subscribe.
If I may give some advice: you build a lot of muscle memory for photo editors and it is incredibly hard to switch later. Think hard about going either with Affinity's offering or right to GIMP (3.0 is apparently close now). If you learn photoshop now you are mostly stuck on it.
R0H1TWhile you're at it why not sue Apple for not allowing 3p app stores, unless that's already in the works?
www.macrumors.com/2024/06/14/eu-plans-to-fine-apple-over-dma-report
www.macrumors.com/2024/06/14/japan-passes-law-to-allow-third-party-app-stores

Apple needs to be brought at least a couple of pegs down, same goes for MS (to a lesser extent) as well as Google, Nvidia et al.
They do in the EU. And the EU is in legal proceedings against them nontheless. Seems the pressure is on over there.
Posted on Reply
#23
R0H1T
Onasi@R0H1T
I was referring to cyberpunk the genre, not Cyberpunk 2077. CDPR did not invent the term.
Ok but I still don't follow term per se or the history behind it, you have to understand a lot of this stuff in Asia is still pretty new. For most of us the "post Apocalyptic world" genre has only really opened up through TV/movies & games.
unwind-protectThey do in the EU. And the EU is in legal proceedings against them nontheless. Seems the pressure is on over there.
Do what? They didn't really comply that's why they're being targeted & rightly so!
arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/06/apple-set-to-be-first-big-tech-group-to-face-charges-under-eu-digital-law
Posted on Reply
#24
Darmok N Jalad
unwind-protectGo feds!



If I may give some advice: you build a lot of muscle memory for photo editors and it is incredibly hard to switch later. Think hard about going either with Affinity's offering or right to GIMP (3.0 is apparently close now). If you learn photoshop now you are mostly stuck on it.



They do in the EU. And the EU is in legal proceedings against them nontheless. Seems the pressure is on over there.
Yeah, it was more to kick the tires on it. I actually own the last perpetual version of LR, version 6.
Posted on Reply
#25
Unregistered
lexluthermiesterDon't forget Amazon. Ever tried to cancel a Prime membership? Good luck with that.
But...but...my savings...



In all seriousness I do worry about our increasingly vast reliance on this company.
I'd say it's the same as Walmart except they've been lapped by Amazon too many times to count now.
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