June 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. government sued Adobe

on Monday, accusing the Photoshop and Acrobat maker of

harming consumers by concealing hefty termination fees in its

most popular subscription plan, and making it difficult to

cancel subscriptions.

In a complaint filed in the San Jose, California,

federal court, the Federal Trade Commission said Adobe buries

the fees, which sometimes reach hundreds of dollars, and other

important terms in its "annual paid monthly" subscription plan

in the fine print, or behind textboxes and hyperlinks.

According to the complaint, Adobe calculates early

termination fees as 50% of the remaining payments when consumers

cancel in their first year.

The FTC also said Adobe forces subscribers who want to

cancel online to navigate unnecessarily through numerous pages,

while those canceling by phone are often disconnected, are

forced to repeat themselves to multiple representatives, and

encounter "resistance and delay" from those representatives.

Two Adobe executives are also defendants: David Wadhwani,

the president of digital media business, and Maninder Sawhney, a

senior vice president in digital sales.

"Adobe trapped customers into year-long subscriptions

through hidden early termination fees and numerous cancellation

hurdles," Samuel Levine, director of the FTC consumer protection

bureau, said in a statement. "Americans are tired of companies

hiding the ball during subscription signup and then putting up

roadblocks when they try to cancel."

Adobe, based in San Jose, did not immediately respond to

requests for comment. It said in December it had been

cooperating with an FTC probe

into its subscription models.

Subscriptions accounted for $4.92 billion, or 95%, of

Adobe's $5.18 billion of revenue in the

quarter ending March 1

.

The FTC accused Adobe of violating the Restore Online

Shoppers' Confidence Act, a 2010 federal law barring merchants

from imposing charges, including for automatic subscription

renewals, unless they clearly disclose material terms and obtain

consumers' informed consent.

Monday's lawsuit seeks civil penalties, an injunction

against further wrongdoing, and other remedies.

The case is U.S. v. Adobe Inc ( ADBE ) et al, U.S. District

Court, Northern District of California, No. 24-03630.