The Justice Department on Friday settled a lawsuit that accused Adobe of making it difficult for customers to cancel their subscriptions to Photoshop and other software, according to a filing in federal court.
Adobe agreed to pay $75 million to the Justice Department and provide customers with $75 million worth of free services.
The Justice Department sued in 2024, accusing the company of hiding expensive cancellation fees from consumers. Adobe’s website and customer service representatives made canceling challenging, the lawsuit claimed.
Adobe denied any wrongdoing. “In recent years, we have made our sign-up and cancellation processes even more streamlined and transparent,” it added in a statement on Friday.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Federal Trade Commission, which referred the case to the department, declined to comment.
The settlement is the latest pullback by the Trump administration on consumer protection lawsuits filed against companies under the Biden administration. The F.T.C. settled a similar case against Amazon for up to $2.5 billion last year after arguing that the e-commerce giant made it hard for customers to terminate their Prime memberships.
On Monday, the Justice Department announced that it had tentatively settled a major lawsuit that accused Live Nation, the company that owns Ticketmaster, of being a monopoly.
David McCabe is a Times reporter who covers the complex legal and policy issues created by the digital economy and new technologies.
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