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Growing up in the South, we often heard the term “the chickens have come home to roost,” and that may be what happened on Friday when the Department of Justice announced a settlement with Adobe for violation of the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act. This might sound familiar to many Creative Cloud subscribers who try to cancel their subscription and feel like they’ve fallen into a maze they can’t escape, only to be hit with unexpected cancellation fees. The U.S. government has stepped in, and Adobe agreed to pay $150 million over how it handled early termination fees and cancellations on its subscriptions.
The settlement breakdown looks like this:
- $75 million goes to the government as a civil penalties
- $75 million is back to customers in the form of free services or credits, once everything is officially approved
And Adobe has also agreed to clean up its subscription handling. That could mean clearer, up‑front explanations of any early termination fees and how they’re calculated, clearer warnings when a free trial is about to change into a paid plan with cancellation fees attached and, most importantly, a simpler online cancellation process, without feeling like the site is trying to talk you out of leaving at every click. Adobe issued a statement on the ruling, disagreeing with the government’s claims and denying any wrongdoing but accepting the ruling puts an end to the litigation filed in June 2024.
What this means for existing Creative Cloud subscribers is anyone’s guess as this point. If you’re on Creative Cloud or any other Adobe subscription, especially the “annual, paid monthly” plan, you should start seeing clearer language about fees and cancellation. If you were hit by surprise fees in the past, you might be in the pool of folks who get some kind of free service or credit, but that will depend on how the settlement is implemented and who qualifies.
While this settlement will be close to the heart of many working in media creation, this isn’t the first time the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA) has been used. A few other notables:
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Amazon (2025): In a historic $2.5 billion settlement, Amazon resolved claims that it tricked millions of consumers into enrolling in Amazon Prime without their consent and knowingly sabotaged their attempts to cancel.
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Instacart (2025): Agreed to a $60 million refund program to settle allegations that it failed to clearly disclose that “free trials” would automatically convert into paid subscriptions.
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Chegg (2025): The education technology company paid $7.5 million to settle charges that it continued to bill customers after they attempted to cancel and made the cancellation option difficult to find.
I read about this settlement and honestly wondered how Comcast isn’t in this discussion, but I digress since we moved away from Comcast a few years ago. I’m sure this settlement won’t stop this kind of discussion on social media though:
And while I certainly don’t agree with and like the often Byzantine process to cancel a service, Adobe isn’t unique in charging an early termination fee when the subscriber agrees to a lower monthly fee by agreeing to subscribe for a full year. It’s a common practice with most any service , and it’s often lost on the subscriber who doesn’t read the fine print. But thankfully, social media can help there, too.
While offering a lower monthly price for a service you agree to stick with for a year isn’t uncommon, you’re often asked to pay upfront for the entire year rather than in monthly payments. That often avoids the sticker shock of an early termination fee. But that’s more common with small companies, as the Adobes and Comcasts of the world more often charge monthly rather than an annual lump sum.
Yes, you can cancel anytime, no fee when you are indeed paying monthly on a month-to-month subscription. But looking at the prices 3 days after this Friday, the 13th, 2026 settlement, this is what I see:
That seems relatively straightforward, including the annual prepaid option. But many (most?) folks don’t read the fine print and usually just choose the cheapest monthly option. But I 100% agree with a settlement that makes cancellation easier and less like you’re trying to be scammed into sticking around. Have you ever tried to cancel a SiriusXM subscription? I think that’s the worst process I have ever personally encountered.
How this settlement will ultimately benefit current subscribers remains to be seen, so keep an eye on your Adobe Creative Cloud subscription email, and perhaps we’ll see if users get some form of restitution from it.
