US government sues Adobe for hiding termination fees

The US government has just sued Adobe, alleging the company unjustly hides termination fees from consumers. This added difficulties for their product users to cancel their subscriptions, along with a convoluted exit process.

In addition, the lawsuit also cited two executives from the company as individual defendants. The names in question are David Wadhwani, President of Digital Media Business and Maninder Sawhney, Senior VP for Digital Sales.

“Adobe hides material terms of its APM (annual, paid monthly) plan in fine print and behind optional textboxes and hyperlinks, providing disclosures that are designed to go unnoticed and that most consumers never see. Adobe then deters cancellations by employing an onerous and complicated cancellation process.”, claimed the US Department of Justice in the suit against Adobe.

In short, Adobe “ambushes subscribers” with a hidden early termination fee when they attempt to cancel. As per this article, the DOJ also said similar hurdles were placed in front of consumers if they tried to cancel over the phone or via live chat.

Consumers would then have to repeat the process, and re-explain their reasons for going through chats or calls upon reconnection.