Adobe sued by FTC over misleading fees and preventing customers from easily cancelling subscriptions

[Troporobo]

Now this is interesting.  It would be fantastic to see the first dent in the ever expanding subscription economy!  However I doubt it will lead to much more than a fine.  

Feds Sue Adobe for 'Trapping' Customers in Long, Expensive Subscriptions

 

The U.S. government sued Adobe on Monday for allegedly “trapping” customers in its default, most lucrative subscription plan. In a complaint, the Department of Justice (DOJ) writes that Adobe locks customers into a year-long agreement that’s not effectively disclosed as such, and “ambushing” users with hefty hidden fees when they try to cancel.

Adobe lawsuit article

 

[humu9679]

I'm sad to see Adobe doing this. Their software is second to none. That said, some of these subscriptions are very difficult to escape.

[Chris Ross]

Good to see, their behavior has been really bad.  For example they held off from providing a fix to the running the program on high resolution monitors in CS6 blaming Microsoft for not updating their APIs and didn't fix it till the subscription model came out.  Turns out a simple registry fix made the software usable on such monitors.  I still use CS6, though on my latest laptop with Win11 getting the software to activate has proved a challenge, so I'm trying affinity photo.

[makar0n]

Yeah I know, totally unexpected 😂

 

Was just browsing some IT news and lo and behold, Adobe seems to be having a great month:

First, in addition to them basically having a license to use your cloud stored works in any way and profit from it, they now added machine learning usage to their license, of course without an opt out, in a classic Adobe style.

Secondly, they have now been sued by FTC in USA over misleading fees and hard to cancel subscriptions - US folks might want to watch that one, in case of any settlement.

 

 

A few links below:

 

FTC - "FTC Takes Action Against Adobe and Executives for Hiding Fees, Preventing Consumers from Easily Cancelling Software Subscriptions"

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/06/ftc-takes-action-against-adobe-executives-hiding-fees-preventing-consumers-easily-cancelling

 

NY Times - "U.S. Sues Adobe Over Hard-to-Cancel Subscriptions"

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/17/technology/us-adobe-subscription-lawsuit.html

 

The Stack - "Adobe joins Microsoft in admitting it's now basically spyware"

https://www.thestack.technology/adobe-joins-microsoft-in-admitting-its-now-basically-spyware/

 

-Gamers Nexus - "US Sues Adobe Over Consumer Protection"

 

 

 

Louis Rossmann (on FTC lawsuit) - "Adobe gets sued by FTC for roofying customers with hidden fees; GOOD! "

 

 

 

Louis Rossmann (on machine learning and new license) - "Adobe roofies all of their customers"

 

 

 

 

Edited July 2 by makar0n

[makar0n]

On 6/18/2024 at 3:31 AM, Chris Ross said:

Good to see, their behavior has been really bad.  For example they held off from providing a fix to the running the program on high resolution monitors in CS6 blaming Microsoft for not updating their APIs and didn't fix it till the subscription model came out.  Turns out a simple registry fix made the software usable on such monitors.  I still use CS6, though on my latest laptop with Win11 getting the software to activate has proved a challenge, so I'm trying affinity photo.

 

Yaaar! Getting rid of annoying activation mechanism preventing you from using legally owned software is a basic human right 😉

Or alternatively some seem to have had luck installing Win 10, activating CS6 and then upgrading to 11. Apparently activation state persists. Guess its another attempt by Adobe to kill the remaining perpetual licenses and force the CC upon them.

Edited July 15 by makar0n