Ars Technica: Canceling a software subscription is supposed to be easy—that’s what US law dictates. Adobe, however, has played fast and loose with its Creative Cloud subscriptions in the past. The company was sued by the Department of Justice in 2024 due to its practice of hiding hefty termination fees when customers signed up. The case has now been settled, with Adobe agreeing to a $75 million fine and matching free services to users of its products.
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“Turning software into a monthly subscription is all the rage these days, but Adobe was way ahead of the curve.” Adobe Illustrator was the first software I ever used that I came close to being proficient in, and it has been the same for such a long time. (The price has gone up, of course, but the gouging remains the same). I remember my mother hemming and hawing over whether or not to stop paying the subscription when she retired from graphic design, and I also remember her being shocked when she had to pay like $100 dollars to cancel it. Also Adobe “disagreeing” with the government’s claims and instead just paying the seventy five million dollars to quietly settle the issue is hilarious. Clearly you know you did something wrong. Still, just flat out stopping the cancellation fees and providing reparations is good. Even if they’re gonna continue doing whack stuff to make even more of a profit.
I think it's evil that they make us pay for so many subscriptions in everyday life. Every company wants to have a subscription model. But they should stop it. It is smart for business but as a consumer, I hate it. Looking at this article I thought "wouldn't it have just been easier/saved them some money to not get themselves in this situation in the first place?" But then the article said " it made more than $7 billion last year. Writing a $75 million check to make this go away is a big win for Adobe." I was glad to hear that they'll supposedly be giving back products to customers who were charged in this whole situation. But given that the company didn't provide specifics for what that will look like/who it's going to, I'm doubtful that all of those customers will actually receive the compensation they're deserved.
This is such an interesting article. I use Adobe Lightroom all the time, and have been exposed more to Illustrator and Photoshop this year. I haven't heard about this ordeal until now. I can’t believe how little this was talked about. Adobe does make some of the best software out there, and it is hard to avoid paying the associated fees. Hearing this just makes my blood boil. It feels like there should be a better way. Making artists rely on paying these monthly fees just seems so unfair. I feel like having just a one time fee is better. Also, why doesn't Adobe have a free or discounted education license program? I feel like it would be a really good business model to get lots of students hooked on their monopoly. It would be really helpful for students though, to be able to learn these industry standard programs in times when they might not be able to afford full licenses.
Adobe is just finding peace in this dispute, avoiding lawsuits by paying the government and the people affected. This feels so like what a huge company would do. They don’t want negative noises to affect their future profit, so they pretend that nothing consumerism has caused has happened to their company. I don’t like how large companies are now in the monopoly of creative software, since so many people have relied on them to make a profit over the past century. I will also buy into the fact that they have created useful software that can support artists to create, but still, the fee that is costing the artists to create is, on the other hand, restricting many young creators from stepping into playing with these applications. It feels like it’s opening the doors of creation to people who can afford to create and generate profits, but closing the doors for people who cannot step into the place of creating with technological tools, which is blocking tons of creativity in the world.
I think it’s crazy and should be illegal to pay a fee for cancelling anything that you already paid for. Of course, if you signed a monthly installment agreement like some services do, like afterpay or even verizon, that’s fully acceptable as it’s a contractual agreement to slowly pay things off. Adobe has zero place to do this. You’re paying monthly for access to a service, you’re not paying off a year worth of the the service over 12 months. They even charge you the fee if you turn off the renewal. The fact the federal government isn’t forcing them to reimburse the fee either is insane, rather they’re just making Adobe, a company worth 98.19 billion, pay 75 million as a fine. That’s not even a drop in the bucket, moreso a drop on a football field turf. It’s not going to do something and they’re just going to figure out another way to take advantage of people.
Everything is a subscription now, and it's never going to change. It is the most profitable way to make money, and it never wont be. Adobe to me is horrible in every way but am I not going to use photoshop, premier, or after effects? I can't they are the only professional software that people use anymore. Of course Davinci resolve exists, but it's becoming niche and also its made by blackmagic and I have my own problems with them. But we live in a world with subscriptions and honestly seeing these "settlements" keep appearing makes me upset. It's so frustrating that companies are able to get away with basically ripping money away from their customers by getting a slap on the wrist. In the same way that Shell Nigeria literally involved themselves with the Nigerian government and war crimes, and got to settle the court case, instead of going to prison. It's not a problem with how companies handle things, its a problem that we still are accepting that this is just the way it should be.
I feel like I deserve a medal for never using adobe upon my own volition, exclusively for educational purposes- and even then, avoiding it when possible. I’ve always known there’s something sinister… a subscription service is evil anyways, of course they only exist for the sake of driving up sales, because it is far more profitable to make consumers dependent and stuck than to offer a one time purchase. I’m mad that nothing too public came of this. Adobe does not care for their customers, just the profits. It reminded me of another company that’s been making me mad recently, I forget the name but it’s basically a SUBSCRIPTION APP that MANAGES YOUR OTHER SUBSCRIPTIONS. They promote their app by claiming they’ll save you money by helping you cancel subscriptions you’re not actively using, and tracking the subscriptions you do use, but what they don’t tell you is that to maintain full access to this information you literally. Have to subscribe. To their ADDITIONAL APP. I hate subscriptions. Let me buy things when I need them.
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