Discussion US DoJ and FTC suing Adobe for trapping customers in hard to cancel and pricy subscriptions

[Semi Lazy Gamer]

US sues Adobe for “deceiving” subscriptions that are too hard to cancel

The DOJ accuses Adobe of trapping users in subscriptions.

www.theverge.com

The lawsuit alleges Adobe “hides” the terms of its annual, paid monthly plan in the “fine print and behind optional textboxes and hyperlinks.” In doing so, the company fails to properly disclose the early termination fee incurred upon cancellation “that can amount to hundreds of dollars,” the complaint says.

When customers do attempt to cancel, the DOJ alleges that Adobe requires them to go through an “onerous and complicated” cancellation process that involves navigating through multiple webpages and pop-ups. It then allegedly “ambushes” customers with an early termination fee, which may discourage them from canceling.

Customers encounter similar obstacles when attempting to cancel their subscriptions over the phone or via live chats, the DOJ alleges. The complaint claims “subscribers have had their calls or chats either dropped or disconnected and have had to re-explain their reason for calling when they re-connect.” The lawsuit alleges that these practices break federal laws designed to protect consumers.

The lawsuit also targets Adobe executives Maninder Sawhney, the senior vice president of digital go-to-market and sales, as well as David Wadhwani, the president of the company’s digital media business. The complaint says both executives “directed, controlled, had the authority to control, or participated in the acts and practices of Adobe.” Adobe didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

 

[Catsylvania]

Kind of feels like this was always the goal for subscriptions. You either subscribe in perpetuity or companies make it a colossal pain in the ass to cancel to the point where you just give up and continue paying for something you don’t want or need.

Early termination fees are straight trash. Capitalism is bad and feels bad.

 

[zumaddy]

Absolutely deserved! Screw them and their deceitful and greedy payment models.

 

[ermitron2]

I can't believe it took this long. My previous company had to report Adobe payments as chargebacks to stop paying the subscription because they couldn't cancel it after an entire week of chats. I still remember the final call with the agent

Adobe: "sir, this is your last chance before we block your account, you will not be able to use it anymore until you accept the charges"
Design: "Thank fucking god. I've been trying to cancel it and it only took a chargeback to get the confirmation"
Adobe "this will generate an early termination fee sir"
Design: "Don't worry, I'll report it as a chargeback too"

 

[Razgriz]

Adobe is infamous in my country for breaking the law surrounding their public terms of cancellation. Their customer support knows it too - every single person I know who has tried to stop their renewals has managed to get customer support to budge immediately when pointed to the law they're breaking. That means they know they're breaking the law, they're just betting on customers not wanting to deal with support to get their subscriptions cancelled.

Scumbags, hope that the case here is solid.

 

[ziggyrivers]

I’m glad the US is doing something against Adobe. It’s baffling how predatory they’ve become. After that update to their Terms of Use, I decided to cancel my Adobe CC subscription, happily payed the $30 something “early cancellation fee” (lol) and went with Affinity Photo (and actually think it’s better than Adobe’s Ps - it loads faster and is more battery friendly).

Early termination fees are straight trash.

Their justification for monthly subs getting an early cancellation fee is stupid: it’s an annual sub, but billed monthly lol it’s corporate for: I’m a multibillion dollar company am will think of anything to bill you $30+

 

[PixelKnight]

Good. After this I hope they continue to observe an Adobe and take them to the cleaners when they inevitably don’t change anything too.

 

[Shadow]

Adobe has been a mess for ages, but the last TOS change was them really pushing their luck. So, this will be an interesting development!

 

[Razgriz]

Their justification for monthly subs getting an early cancellation fee is stupid: it’s an annual sub, but billed monthly lol it’s corporate for: I’m a multibillion dollar company am will think of anything to bill you $30+

This is how most mobile phone plans work as well though; you make a deal with them for a year or two to pay them X a month and in exchange you usually get a recent(-ish) phone and if you cancel early, you have to backpay what you still owe them.

Of course the difference is that a phone is a physical device that wears out with use (making the choice to need to backpay early cancellations more understandable; you didn't pay for the full phone yet) while Adobes software suite doesn't wear and tear just from having it installed on your system.

Adobe does technically offer the "true" monthly plan but it's iirc quite a bit more expensive.

 

[ziggyrivers]

This is how most mobile phone plans work as well though; you make a deal with them for a year or two to pay them X a month and in exchange you usually get a recent(-ish) phone and if you cancel early, you have to backpay what you still owe them.

Of course the difference is that a phone is a physical device that wears out with use (making the choice to need to backpay early cancellations more understandable; you didn't pay for the full phone yet) while Adobes software suite doesn't wear and tear just from having it installed on your system.

This I can understand because, say, you trade-in your iPhone 15 for the up and coming 16 and TMobile gives you a credit, but it's billed monthly for two years. That's understandable, you know what you're walking into.

But Adobe deciding to make their annual subscription explicitly annual and implicitly annual is absurd. You either pay a lump sum for a year, or pay monthly. It's not a yearly subscription if I can't use it if I skip a month.

Anywho, I've switched over to Affinity Photo and have no regrets. Will later change my video editing to Davinci

 

[Razgriz]

But Adobe deciding to make their annual subscription explicitly annual and implicitly annual is absurd. You either pay a lump sum for a year, or pay monthly. It's not a yearly subscription if I can't use it if I skip a month.

Anywho, I've switched over to Affinity Photo and have no regrets. Will later change my video editing to Davinci

Glad you were able to find an alternative. Unfortunately the business world will probably be stuck with Adobe forever since PSD and Indd are the de facto publisher processing formats and unless software is bug-for-bug compatible with it (which nothing is and Adobe likes to arbitrarily change up the format every few years), it's what they're stuck with. A poster maker isn't asking for a highres PNG, they want a PSD; same deal with a book printer.

 

[ziggyrivers]

Glad you were able to find an alternative. Unfortunately the business world will probably be stuck with Adobe forever since PSD and Indd are the de facto publisher processing formats and unless software is bug-for-bug compatible with it (which nothing is and Adobe likes to arbitrarily change up the format every few years), it's what they're stuck with. A poster maker isn't asking for a highres PNG, they want a PSD; same deal with a book printer.

You're right, the business world is so engrossed in the Adobe suite that it'll be impossible for them to lose a lot. Hell, it's a Microsoft Windows situation: too big to fail, especially since everyone and their mother has a sub with them, be it individual and business.

I think it'll be like Windows, MacOS and Linux: a very big percentage of the market share is Windows, but the rest is the alternative.