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U.S. regulators have taken action against Adobe, the maker of Photoshop and other popular design software, over allegations that the company concealed details of expensive cancellation fees, making it difficult for consumers to cancel their subscriptions. This lawsuit marks an escalation in the regulatory crackdown on such practices.
The Justice Department filed the lawsuit on Monday, accusing Adobe of hiding the specifics of its cancellation fees in fine print and behind optional text boxes and hyperlinks. According to the lawsuit, Adobe’s website and customer service representatives made the cancellation process unnecessarily challenging.
“Adobe knows about the barriers consumers face when attempting to cancel their subscriptions,” stated the government in the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
This lawsuit follows a similar case by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against Amazon last year, which argued that the e-commerce giant made it difficult for customers to terminate their Prime memberships. The FTC has proposed new “click to cancel” rules, requiring companies to offer an easy way to stop paying for a product.
The efforts to penalize companies with hard-to-cancel subscriptions are part of a broader attempt by federal regulators to curb Big Tech’s power. The Justice Department and the FTC have filed antitrust lawsuits against Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Meta, the owner of Instagram and WhatsApp, accusing them of engaging in practices that stifle competition. Adobe recently dropped a planned $20 billion purchase of design startup Figma, facing resistance from regulators globally.
In the suit against Adobe, the Justice Department named David Wadhwani, the president of its digital media business, and Maninder Sawhney, a company vice president, as defendants. The lawsuit follows an investigation into Adobe’s practices by the FTC.
