Adobe (ADBE) Agrees to Pay $75M Over Subscription Cancellation Lawsuit

TLDR

• Adobe will pay $75 million to the U.S. Department of Justice to settle a consumer protection lawsuit
• The company will also provide $75 million in free services to affected customers
• The lawsuit accused Adobe of hiding cancellation fees worth hundreds of dollars in fine print
• The DOJ and FTC claimed Adobe made it deliberately hard for customers to cancel subscriptions
• Adobe denied any wrongdoing as part of the settlement, which still requires court approval

Adobe faced accusations that it buried early termination fees — sometimes worth hundreds of dollars — deep in subscription fine print. The DOJ and FTC filed the complaint back in June 2024, and now the two sides have reached a deal.

Adobe Inc., ADBE

The core issue was Adobe’s “annual paid monthly” plan. Customers who signed up didn’t realize they could owe a large fee if they tried to cancel early. The government said those fees were hidden behind textboxes and hyperlinks rather than clearly disclosed upfront.

The FTC and DOJ also took issue with how hard Adobe made it to actually cancel. Online, users had to click through multiple pages. On the phone, they were passed between representatives and met with what the government called “resistance and delay.”

$150 Million Total Hit

The settlement breaks down into two parts. Adobe will pay $75 million directly to the Justice Department. On top of that, it will provide $75 million worth of free services to customers who were affected.

That makes the total value of the settlement $150 million. The deal still needs a judge to sign off before it’s final.

Adobe has not admitted to any wrongdoing. The company agreed to settle without conceding that it did anything wrong — a common approach in these kinds of cases.

Stock Reaction

The market responded sharply. ADBE stock dropped 5.62% on the day the settlement was announced, March 13, 2026.

The lawsuit had been hanging over the company since the DOJ and FTC filed it in June 2024. At that time, the government said the subscription practices violated consumer protection laws.

Adobe’s “annual paid monthly” plan let users spread yearly costs into monthly payments. But the catch was an early termination fee — often a percentage of the remaining contract value — that could run into the hundreds of dollars.

The government said this fee wasn’t made clear to customers at the point of sign-up. Adobe disputes that characterization.

The complaint described a pattern where digital cancellation flows were designed with friction. Long click paths, unclear messaging, and phone representatives trained to push back on cancellation requests were all cited as part of the problem.

The settlement doesn’t require Adobe to admit fault, but it does come with financial consequences. It also puts pressure on the company to clean up its cancellation process going forward, though the terms on that front are not yet fully public.

Adobe’s stock was down 5.62% on the day of the announcement.

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