The US government has sued Adobe who has a near monopoly on creative tools in Australia, accusing the Company concealing hefty termination fees in its most popular subscription plan, and making it difficult to cancel subscriptions, a visit to Trust Pilot web site reveals the extent of the anger among subscribers to their services.

This is the same Company who is constantly trying to lock customers into their own services spanning Adobe Acrobat, Photoshop, their own suite of Creative tools and InDesign.

The business that in Australia is run by Katrina Troughton Vice President and Managing Director, has been accused of harming consumers by concealing hefty termination fees in its most popular subscription plan, and making it difficult to cancel subscriptions.

The court action follows a complaint being filed in a US federal court, with the Federal Trade Commission claiming that the global software Company buried additional fees, which sometimes reach hundreds of dollars, and other important terms in its “annual paid monthly” subscription plan.

Their true actions were buried in the in the fine print, or behind textboxes and hyperlinks.

According to the complaint, Adobe calculates early termination fees as 50% of the remaining payments when consumers cancel in their first year.

A visit to the Trust Pilot Site reveals that Adobe only has a 1.2 Star rating with thousands of consumers complaining about the Company and their methods.

Click link to read Adobe Reviews

One person this week about their interaction with the US Company ‘Tried to cancel account, but impossible keep trying to take payment but thankfully no money in account. Adobe keeps writing to say can’t take payment but when I go in to cancel it says go to account and pay – no ability to cancel. So, this perpetual situation will keep occurring and I will open a new account rather than give them the satisfaction of taking money for a service I do not use! Utter nonsense ! Stay away unless you know you will use it – permanently!’

Another Adobe customer wrote ‘Robbing you blind. terrible company, and thieves”

“Been paying for it for over a year trying to cancel and had no luck. I’ve now got $180 early cancellation fee… ridiculous. it was $17 a month when I first started and is now well over 50!!!! terrible company. and I got 0 heads up”.

The FTC also claims that Adobe forces subscribers who want to cancel online to navigate unnecessarily through numerous pages, while those cancelling by phone are often disconnected, are forced to repeat themselves to multiple representatives, and encounter “resistance and delay” from those representatives.

Two Adobe executives are also defendants: David Wadhwani, the president of digital media business, and Maninder Sawhney, a senior vice president in digital sales.

“Adobe trapped customers into year-long subscriptions through hidden early termination fees and numerous cancellation hurdles,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC consumer protection bureau, said in a statement. “Americans are tired of companies hiding the ball during subscription signup and then putting up roadblocks when they try to cancel.”

Dana Rao, Adobe’s general counsel and chief trust officer, claims that the Company will refute the FTC’s claims in court.

Rolling out what appears to be a standard line she said, “Subscription services are convenient, flexible and cost effective to allow users to choose the plan that best fits their needs, timeline and budget,” .

“We are transparent with the terms and conditions of our subscription agreements and have a simple cancellation process.”

The government said Adobe hides important terms in fine print and behind textboxes and hyperlinks, clearly discloses the fees only when subscribers try to cancel and makes cancelling an onerous and complicated process.

Subscriptions accounted for $4.92 billion, or 95%, of Adobe’s $5.18 billion of revenue in the quarter ending March 1.

The FTC accused Adobe of violating the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, a 2010 federal law barring merchants from imposing charges, including for automatic subscription renewals, unless they clearly disclose material terms and obtain consumers’ informed consent.