The U.S. government has unleashed a legal firestorm against Adobe, the software giant behind creative apps like Photoshop and Acrobat. In a lawsuit filed Monday, federal authorities accused the company of deliberately deceiving consumers by masking expensive termination fees for its popular subscription services.

The Department of Justice complaint alleges Adobe pushed customers into high-priced “annual paid monthly” plans without properly disclosing key terms like the hefty early cancellation penalties that “can amount to hundreds of dollars.”

Instead, the government says Adobe buried these details in dense fine print and optional expandable menus – only revealing the fees when users already tried canceling. It labeled Adobe’s disclosures “designed to go unnoticed.”

The suit depicts an arduous hurdle course confronting those seeking to end subscriptions. Customers supposedly faced needlessly complicated website flows with endless pages and pop-ups. Phone cancellations likewise proved a struggle, with disconnected calls and obstinate sales reps forcing people to “re-explain their reason for calling.”

By effectively trapping disgruntled subscribers, the Federal Trade Commission accused Adobe of violating consumer protection laws through “deceptive” marketing of automatically recurring charges.

“Adobe harmed consumers by enrolling them in its most lucrative subscription plan without disclosing important terms,” asserted the DOJ complaint. The DOJ is seeking penalties, refunds and a ban on the alleged practices.

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Adobe has forcefully rejected the allegations, with its chief legal officer Dana Rao defending the “convenient, flexible and cost-effective” subscriptions as transparent, stating: “We have a simple cancellation process.”

The high-stakes clash spotlights escalating scrutiny over the shift to subscription-based business models across the tech sector, which critics argue prioritize corporate revenues over user choice.

As software transitions from one-off purchases to recurring bills, the Adobe case could have far-reaching implications for how virtual products and services are marketed to everyday consumers.