Talked abroad as Adobe tricks users into contracting for 12 months with a dark pattern



Regarding Adobe, which develops and sells software such as Photoshop and Illustrator, a Twitter thread that summarizes 'How Adobe uses

dark patterns to trick users into making annual contracts without knowing it' has become a hot topic. ..



Darkpatterns.org, run by Harry Brinul, who coined the term dark patterns, has put together a Twitter account on how Adobe can mislead users into thinking about a contract, so I tried it out. When you access the Japanese version of the Adobe Creative Cloud homepage , the 'Start for free' and 'Buy' buttons are displayed side by side, so click 'Start for free', which most users will choose.



Then, the following pop-up screen will be displayed, and you can see that '6,248 yen / month (tax included) after 7 days free trial' is written at the bottom. 'I see. It's free for the first 7 days, and after that it's a system that can be used for 6248 yen per month,' and click 'Start' displayed next to it.



You will be taken to the page that says 'Enjoy the 7-day free trial' and you will be asked to enter your email address. On the right side, 'Usage details' are 'Annual plan (monthly payment) -6,248 yen / month' 'Today's billing amount 0 yen' 'February 14 (one week after the contract date)' Words such as 'Billed amount 6,248 yen / month' are lined up. Enter your email address and click 'Continue' ...



The credit card information input screen has opened. Even on this screen, there is no particular information that is different from the previous one, and details about the contract are not displayed. It just says, 'By starting the 7-day free trial, you're starting your subscription and agreeing to the terms and conditions of your subscription and cancellation.'



The wording 'subscription and cancellation terms' displayed on this page is linked. Click the link ...



A pop-up titled 'Subscription and Cancellation Terms' opened, stating the terms for a long time. darkpatterns.org points out that many users will not get here and sign up.



Also, by scrolling down the pop-up, the 'Cancellation conditions' item was finally displayed. Here, 'If you cancel within 14 days after the first order, we will refund the full amount. If you cancel after 14 days, 50% of the remaining period fee will be charged in one lump sum and the service will be charged for the billing period of the month. It will continue until the end. '



When you start a free trial on Adobe, 'Annual contract' is selected instead of 'Monthly contract' by default. Therefore, the 'remaining period' at the time of cancellation is not 'until the end of the month of cancellation' but 'until the end of the year of cancellation'.

In other words, even if you try to cancel 15 days after starting the free trial, you will be charged 50% of the remaining annual total payment instead of 50% of the remaining monthly fee. The specific billing amount is 6248 yen x 12 months = 50% of about 75,000 yen, which is less than 40,000 yen. On the other hand, it says 'The service will continue until the end of the billing period for the month', so the service will be available until the end of the month. darkpatterns.org states, 'I found a

help page about canceling my subscription when I browsed,' but I can't get to the help page directly from the contracting page.

darkpatterns.org said, 'Let's summarize:'1. The total annual payment was hidden' '2. The 50% cancellation fee was hidden' '3. Clickwrap contract (click the approval button) The text of the contract), which we consider to be approved by doing so, was much smaller than the sales text. '' 4. It was difficult to find the cancellation terms. 'Should this be allowed?' He pointed out that there is a problem with the contract method.



To avoid the annual contract when starting the free trial, click the item marked 'Annual plan (monthly payment)' and change to 'Monthly plan'. The monthly charge for the monthly plan was 9878 yen.



Hacker News, a social news site, has a lively debate on this topic: 'If 14 days have passed, instead of canceling the plan, move to another plan and within 14 days after the plan change. Users who show tricks such as 'You can avoid paying exorbitant cancellation fees by canceling the new plan' and threatening to 'sue to consumer groups in case of emergency' with Adobe support staff However, when we discussed it, we were able to cancel without paying an extra cancellation fee. '

Adobe tricks users into a 12 month contract | Hacker News
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30222165

In the past, it has been reported that 'I was charged an exorbitant cancellation fee when I canceled my Adobe subscription in the middle, so I contacted Adobe support directly and won the cancellation fee exemption.'

How can a user who has been charged more than 20,000 yen by Adobe avoid paying due to cancellation in the middle of subscription? --GIGAZINE



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