The United States Government has sued the software maker company Adobe for deceiving customers by hiding the early termination fee for its most popular subscription plan and making it difficult for customers to cancel their subscriptions. The Department of Justice on the referral from FTC charges that Adobe’s steps push customers towards the “annual paid monthly” plan and that too without disclosing the cancellation charges that can cost the customers.
FTC said “Adobe trapped customers into year-long subscriptions through hidden early termination fees and numerous cancellation hurdles”. “Americans are tired of companies hiding the ball during subscription signup and then putting up roadblocks when they try to cancel. The FTC will continue working to protect Americans from these illegal business practices.”
FTC takes action against Adobe and executives for hiding fees, preventing consumers from easily cancelling software subscriptions: https://t.co/tJ7J3tLxc4 /1
— FTC (@FTC) June 17, 2024
The complaint filed accuses Adobe of pushing customers to its “annual paid monthly” subscription plan, pre-selecting it as a default. During the enrollment, the customers are shown the “monthly” cost but hide the early termination fee which is 50 percent of the remaining monthly payments when a customer cancels in their first year.
If someone were to go through this information customer would have to find it in the small print or require customers to hover over small icons to find the disclosures. The complaint also highlights that the company uses an early termination fee as a hurdle to stop customers from terminating their plans. Problems like dropped calls chats, and multiple transfers were also highlighted in the complaint.
