The Fight Against Dark Patterns Continue: Adobe Sued by the U.S. Government

The Fight Against Dark Patterns Continue: Adobe Sued by the U.S. Government

Adobe is the latest company to come under scrutiny for using dark patterns, a questionable practice impacting everyone with an internet connection.

Adobe is the latest company to come under scrutiny for using dark patterns, a questionable practice impacting everyone with an internet connection.
Spryng Editorial
Spryng Editorial
2 min read

Yesterday, Adobe, was included in the list of potential “bad boys” by The U.S. Department of Justice and the federal Trade Commission (FTC) who argue that Adobe makes it difficult for consumers to cancel subscriptions for its popular software products like Photoshop and Illustrator.

“Adobe trapped customers into year-long subscriptions through hidden early termination fees and numerous cancellation hurdles.” — Director Samuel Levine of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection

The suit alleges that Adobe hid details of expensive cancellation fees in fine print and optional text boxes, making the cancellation process challenging both online and through customer service. For context, Adobe earned $14.22 billion from subscriptions in 2023.

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There aren’t many creatives that don’t use Adobe’s impressive suite of creative tools from Illustrator and Photoshop to Acrobat Reader and Lightroom.

Nobody would challenge that the likes of Instagram, Facebook, and Amazon control their users with clever ways of engaging us to stay on their apps or click on what they want us to click on. In our previous post Start Your Fight Against Dark Patterns Today Spring addresses some of these anti-patterns used by actors from AirBnB to the New York Times.

Spring aims to be void of dark patterns on our platform and strives to be a positive influence on other technology platforms.

How aware are you of dark patterns in your life?