News Adobe exec compared Creative Cloud cancellation fees to ‘heroin’

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Early termination fees are “a bit like heroin for Adobe,” according to an Adobe executive quoted in the FTC’s newly unredacted complaint against the company for allegedly hiding fees and making it too hard to cancel Creative Cloud. “There is absolutely no way to kill off ETF or talk about it more obviously” in the order flow without “taking a big business hit,” this executive said.

That’s the big reveal in the unredacted complaint, which also contains previously-unseen allegations that Adobe was internally aware of studies showing its order and cancellation flows were too complicated and customers were unhappy with surprise early termination fees.

In a short interview, Adobe’s general counsel and chief trust officer Dana Rao pushed back...

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