Adobe Pays $75M to Settle Subscription Cancellation Lawsuit
Adobe settles with the US government over allegations it buried termination fees and made canceling subscriptions a nightmare.
Adobe is shelling out $75 million to make a federal lawsuit go away. The US government accused the Photoshop and Acrobat giant of hiding steep early termination fees from subscribers and deliberately making it a pain to cancel.
The complaint alleged Adobe's subscription sign-up process obscured the fees customers would face if they tried to bail before their term ended. Anyone who's ever tried to cancel a Creative Cloud plan is probably nodding right now.
Adobe announced the settlement on Friday, choosing to pay up rather than fight it out in court. The $75 million price tag is a rounding error for a company of Adobe's size, but the case sends a clear signal: bury cancellation terms at your own risk.
Dark patterns in subscription services have drawn increasing scrutiny from regulators. Adobe just became the most expensive cautionary tale yet.