The software behemoth Adobe is being sued by the US government, which claims that the company’s complicated cancellation procedure and “hidden” termination costs violate consumer protection rules. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said that the company had not given clients clear disclosure of its conditions, which included the one-year duration of a membership and the fees associated with early cancellation.

According to the agency’s complaint, Adobe declined to change its practice since doing so would have a negative financial impact on the firm. Adobe refuted the allegations and declared it will defend itself in court.

General counsel and chief trust officer Dana Rao stated, “We have a simple cancellation process and are transparent with the terms and conditions of our subscription agreements.”

“We will refute the FTC’s claims in court,” he said.

Founded in 1982, Adobe is well recognised for its photo-editing and PDF-editing tools, notably Adobe Photoshop. About 2012, it changed its business strategy to a subscription-based sales model, requiring clients to pay a one-time or recurring price.

However, the lawsuit claims that the company’s sign-up procedure is confusing, often neglecting to mention that clients are committing to pay for a full year and not disclosing the cost of cancelling early, even though there may be hundreds of dollars involved.

According to the lawsuit, the corporation also reportedly subjects clients to a “convoluted process” when they attempt to cancel, requiring them to reenter their password and navigate through many pop-up displays.

“Adobe trapped customers into year-long subscriptions through hidden early termination fees and numerous cancellation hurdles,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a press announcement.

“Americans are tired of companies hiding the ball during subscription signup and then putting up roadblocks when they try to cancel,” Levine added.

The methods mentioned in the complaint bear resemblance to those that regulators discovered in a case filed against Amazon in the previous year, which led to other complaints being filed with organisations like the Better Business Bureau.

Customers thought they had finished the procedure in certain situations, but the agency said in the complaint—which was filed in federal court in California—that they were still being charged.

The complaint also mentions David Wadhwani, president of Adobe’s digital media division, and Maninder Sawhney, senior vice president of digital go to market & sales since 2018.

Despite claiming to have begun investigating the matter in 2022, the government claimed that the “defendants have repeatedly decided against rectifying some of Adobe’s unlawful practices because of the revenue implications.”

It requested that the court stop Adobe from using its method and impose monetary fines for each legal infraction.

(Adapted from AOL.com)