Welcome to Adobe! You can enroll anytime, but you may never cancel.
Well, possibly not never, but for patrons who had a subscription to software from San Jose-based image-editing technology giant Adobe, it was very difficult and potentially very costly to cancel the subscription, two U.S. government agencies claim in a recently filed lawsuit.
“Adobe allegedly protects its subscription revenue by thwarting subscribers' attempts to cancel and subjecting them to a complicated and inefficient cancellation process filled with unnecessary steps, delays, unsolicited offers, and warnings,” the U.S. Department of Justice said in a press release Monday after joining the Federal Trade Commission's lawsuit against Adobe on Monday.
Adobe also imposed a hidden fee of lots of of dollars on thousands and thousands of subscribers for early cancellation, the lawsuit says. Also named as defendants are David Wadhwani, president of the corporate's digital media division, and Maninder Sawhney, vp of digital sales.
“For years, Adobe has profited from these hidden fees by misleading consumers about the true cost of a subscription, surprising them with the fee when they try to cancel, and using the fee as a powerful retention tool,” the Justice Department alleged.
Adobe's general counsel Dana Rao denied the federal government's allegations and promised that the corporate would refute them in court. She called subscriptions “convenient, flexible and cost-effective” because they permit customers to decide on a plan that most closely fits their needs and budget.
“Our priority is to always provide a positive experience to our customers,” Rao said in a Adobe statement from Monday“We are transparent about the terms of our subscription contracts and have a simple cancellation process.”
The lawsuit accuses Adobe of violating federal consumer protection law. The suit seeks potential refunds and compensation for subscribers, in addition to unspecified fines and an injunction prohibiting the corporate from continuing to harass customers.
Adobe, whose market value is $232 billion, hid essential details about subscriptions – including the “hefty” early cancellation fee – through advantageous print and web links “designed to go unnoticed and never seen by most consumers,” in keeping with the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
Before Adobe switched to monthly and annual subscriptions in 2012, its customers bought software under “perpetual license agreements” that allowed buyers to make use of the products indefinitely, the lawsuit says. Wadhwani was considered one of the “primary architects” of the switch to subscriptions, the lawsuit says.
The company's revenue from subscription software resembling Acrobat, Photoshop, Illustrator and Creative Cloud nearly doubled last yr, from $7.71 billion in 2019 to $14.2 billion, in keeping with the lawsuit.
Adobe's process for subscribers doesn’t “clearly and conspicuously” state that a subscription lasts for one yr and that a fee can be charged for early termination, the lawsuit said.
“In numerous cases, subscribers who have requested cancellation through Adobe Customer Service believe they have successfully canceled, but continue to be charged nonetheless,” the lawsuit states. “Some of these subscribers do not realize for months that Adobe is continuing to charge them, and only learn of the charges when they check their bank accounts.”
The company's subscription practices led to quite a few complaints with the Better Business Bureau and by itself support forums, in keeping with the lawsuit. Consumers reported that they “did not understand what they were signing up for and were surprised to learn that they had signed up for a plan that required a one-year commitment” and that there might be a fee for early cancellation, the lawsuit said.
Adobe customers who desired to cancel online “had to navigate through numerous pages with multiple options, many of which were completely unnecessary to accommodate consumers' cancellation requests,” the lawsuit states.
One of the complaints cited within the lawsuit stated, “Adobe literally won't let me cancel my subscription,” and explained that when the client attempted to cancel their subscription through Adobe's website, they were caught in a loop where they’d to log in repeatedly but could never get to the cancellation.
Subscribers who desired to cancel by phone or chat “were subjected to a time-consuming and stressful process,” the lawsuit states.
Another grievance cited within the lawsuit states that the client contacted Adobe several times over several months by phone and chat and was faced with “insistent negotiations” every time and was offered two free months of subscription as a substitute of cancellation.
Adobe was aware of the complaints and knew that buyers were often confused about subscription terms, the lawsuit says. The company and its executives also knew of “significant government and regulatory scrutiny of its subscription sign-up and cancellation practices,” however the lawsuit alleged Adobe “nevertheless continued its unlawful practices to this day.”
image credit : www.mercurynews.com