Shutterstock to pay $35M over hard-to-cancel subscriptions(www.ftc.gov)
76 pointsby Lihh273 hours ago7 comments
  • runako44 minutes ago
    > Shutterstock failed to get consent to charge consumers’ credit cards before charging them for subscriptions

    This sounds like it should carry criminal penalties?

    • jjtheblunt2 minutes ago
      Conde Nast is _horrible_ this way, tried for a second year in a row to charge me for Wired, which i do not subscribe to, could not explain where they got the idea i did, evidently had access through some dark pattern from years earlier to charge for something i must have bought as a magazine on iOS.

      It took hours of online chat argument with the unfortunate real employee fielding such pissed customers, and threats of legal action, eventually citing their legal counsel by email address and full name (from the Conde Nast site), before they agreed to _not_ charge me whatever obscene yearly subscription would be.

      They can burn in crooked hell after that nonsense. I wonder if the Reddit people are bothered by their owner, as I had a personally signed generally cheery note from maybe Alexis back when i first subscribed and bought a tshirt, going on 20 years ago i guess.

    • zurtri11 minutes ago
      Well, if you or I did it - of course!

      But when Corporate does it, we just handwave it way.

  • whh2 hours ago
    Adobe needs to be next. I had to cancel a card because that was easier than cancelling Creative Cloud.
    • sanswork2 hours ago
      Adobe isn't hard to cancel if you sign up for monthly subscriptions. I do it fairly regularly because I need PS in short bursts.

      A lot of people sign up for discounted annual commitments though then complain when they can't cancel before the year is up.

      • IneffablePigeonan hour ago
        I had been paying monthly for 13 years straight and they still demanded a cancellation fee because it turned out I was on an annual commitment (which by the way they hiked the price of by 50% with a month’s notice and by the time you notice the larger payment go out you are in a whole new 12 months).

        So yes, I complained about that.

        • sansworkan hour ago
          Ok so you were on an annual plan to save money and when you cancelled you had to pay an exit fee to account for the annual discount. Seems reasonable to me.

          They gave you a months notice of the price increase and you didn't cancel until after it went into effect?

          • hartator43 minutes ago
            Shouldn’t auto renew and auto commit though.
            • sanswork39 minutes ago
              Why? It's a subscription auto-renew is the default. As for auto-commit why would they change your subscription choices on you without you choosing it?
          • DangitBobby29 minutes ago
            Why are you defending obvious theft?
            • koolba22 minutes ago
              > Why are you defending obvious theft?

              Where’s the theft?

              It’s perfectly normal to have a fee for breaking a lease. And that’s what an annual subscription paid monthly is anyway. It’s a commitment for an extended period of time.

              If you could just stop paying and retain the discounted rate, what is an annual subscription vs a monthly one?

            • whyenot10 minutes ago
              Because it is not obviously theft. If you are getting a discount for making a year-long commitment, and then cancel, breaking that commitment, isn't a cancelation fee appropriate?
      • cryzingeran hour ago
        If you only need PS in short bursts, may I recommend https://www.photopea.com/?

        It's not at 100% feature parity with PS but it's pretty darn close.

        • sansworkan hour ago
          Appreciate the suggestion but I'm terrible at editing so I just stick with PS because the cost for a month or two when I need it isn't much and it's really easy to find videos walking through exactly what I need to do. Even a single hour spent trying to translate a tutorial would more than wipe out the savings.
          • cryzingeran hour ago
            Totally fair, I understand :)
    • nih5672 hours ago
      I hope freelancer.com will be the next one. I canceled and renewed my credit card because of them. Even though I deleted my account, they continued to withdraw money.
    • x86hacker1010an hour ago
      Don’t they charge you to cancel or something? I also remember their suite being absolutely fucking dumb I never used it again
      • sansworkan hour ago
        They let you sign up for an annual discount but still pay monthly. The cancelation fee is if you try to end the annual commitment early. If you just sign up monthly(seriously always do this when you see these offers) there is no cancellation fee.
    • charcircuitan hour ago
      Canceling a card isn't the same thing as canceling a subscription. Most businesses will have you still pay via a different payment method to resolve your debt.
      • dheeraan hour ago
        They'll invoice you but don't actually pay. They aren't going to take you to court over a $50/month subscription; the easier route for them is to just disable your account, which is what you wanted anyway.

        Never give them your actual residential address (they don't need to know it), birth day, or SSN, or be tricked into giving them such. If they ask on any customer service chat or phone, the answer is they don't need to know it.

        Without these things they can't exactly put it on your credit report, either. They may send it to collectors, but don't talk to them. Let them cry. They still won't serve you a court summons over $50.

        Keep businesses in check from this money-grabbing behavior. Any kind of subscription should be easily cancellable.

  • chancek3 hours ago
    A great idea of a product is some sort of unified system for companies to correctly manage subscriptions. There needs to be standards for what makes a user flow acceptable or not when it comes to cancellations.
  • raincole39 minutes ago
    It's a dead company walking anyway. It might be the final blow.
  • rectang2 hours ago
    Did Shutterstock come out money ahead?

    Is 35 million and the potential for future punishment a sufficient deterrent?

    • bpodgurskyan hour ago
      Look at the stock history. The company is on life support. This is basically an entire year of earnings.
  • exabrialan hour ago
    Thank you FTC. Next, please go after some monoplies.
  • ktallettan hour ago
    If your business is only viable due to shady subscription practices then it doesn't deserve to be running, whether it's Adobe, gyms, or whatever.