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The Fee That Launched a Thousand Tweets: Inside Adobe’s Latest Backlash


A new wave of anger is rippling through creative circles after users discovered that canceling an Adobe® Creative Cloud® subscription can cost as much as half of their remaining contract. Posts on X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit accusing the software giant of “dark patterns” surged this week, even as U.S. regulators press a year-old lawsuit that says Adobe® hides the penalty and makes quitting needlessly difficult.
Under Adobe’s most popular plan – “annual, paid monthly” – customers can cancel at any time, but once the initial 14-day trial has passed the company imposes an early-termination fee (ETF) equal to 50 percent of the unpaid balance on the contract. Adobe’s own help page spells out the rule, noting that a user who quits in month nine still owes half of the final three payments.

Many subscribers say they never noticed that clause during sign-up. A Reddit thread titled “Adobe deceptive cancellation fees” shows creators trading horror stories and workarounds. One poster said they were blindsided by “a $300 cancellation fee,” adding that “nowhere in the sign-up process was this information included.”
In another discussion, users swap tips for temporarily switching plans to exploit the 14-day refund window – an act one commenter called “the only way to avoid the trap.” Tutorials from outlets such as Business Insider have begun walking customers through the multistep web flow required to terminate an account.
Complaints reached regulators last year. In June 2024 the Federal Trade Commission sued Adobe® and two senior executives, alleging the company “buried” the ETF in small print, pre-selected the annual plan, and forced users through “numerous cancellation hurdles.” FTC consumer-protection chief Samuel Levine said Adobe® “trapped customers into year-long subscriptions through hidden fees.” The case, filed in federal court in California, accuses the firm of violating the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act.
Adobe® rejects the charges. General counsel Dana Rao told The Verge that the ETF represents “less than half a percent of our annual revenue” and argued that the company’s four-step cancellation flow is “industry-leading.” An unredacted copy of the FTC complaint, however, quotes an internal Adobe® executive likening ETFs to “heroin for Adobe,” saying the company feared that clearer disclosures would “take a big business hit.”
For now, the controversy is fueling interest in alternatives. Reddit threads point newcomers toward Serif’s Affinity suite, DaVinci Resolve, and open-source tools such as GIMP and Inkscape. Some long-time Adobe® users say they will simply ride out their current term and leave. Whether they can do so without paying the fee may hinge on the FTC case – and on how prominently Adobe® chooses to display the true cost of canceling.


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