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Title KCC IMPOSES A 1.39 BILLION WON FINE ON ADOBE
Date 2023-11-30 Read 6147
Corrective order to improve payment of a penalty and refund conditions and notify users of material matters when contracting


The Korea Communications Commission (KCC, Chairman Lee Dong-kwan) decided to impose a corrective order and a fine of 1.39 billion won on Adobe Systems Ireland Ltd., which has limited users' right to terminate a contract and not clearly notified the imposition of penalty, such as imposing excessive penalties for cancellation or not refunding prepaid usage fees, at a general meeting on Wednesday, November 29.

Since August last year, the KCC has conducted a fact-finding investigation on the overall operation and refund of services that Adobe has been selling through the online web at adobe.com.

Adobe imposed an excessive penalty of 50% for the Annual contract paid monthly and did not refund the entire fee for the Annual contract prepaid when a customer canceled a plan after 14 days of the initial order.

The KCC compared Adobe's case with similar services at home and abroad and comprehensively investigated the feasibility of determining penalties and complaints related to refunds.

Accordingly, it decided to impose a fine of 876 million won along with a corrective order, as Adobe has limited the user's right to terminate a contract by operating the plan in a unilateral and unfavorable manner so that users could not simply cancel it during the annual contract.

Additionally, on the initial screen page of the online contract, Adobe notifies users that a cancellation fee will be applied if they cancel after 14 days of subscrption, marked with the ⓘ symbol. Users can understand that a 50% penalty is incurred only after completing four processes, including moving the mouse cursor to ⓘ when it comes to the Annual contract paid monthly. For the Monthly contract, it indicated that 'Cancellable at any time without a fee ⓘ.' Users become aware that the plan is non-refundable after 14 days of subscrption only after moving the cursor to the ⓘ icon.

Accordingly, the KCC decided to impose a fine of 433 million won along with a corrective order for Adobe to clearly explain and notify users of the refund and penalty policies, which are important matters that can directly affect the contract, on the initial screen page.

Chairman Lee said, "We strictly took action based on the principle that there is no distinction between domestic and foreign business operators in complying with the purpose of legislations and the obligations of statutes," and added, "We will continue to make efforts to prevent damage to digital platform users."


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The Korea Communications Commission
File 20231129_News_Release_Adobe.docx 20231129_News_Release_Adobe.docx
231129 (보도자료) 방통위, 어도비(Adobe)에 과징금 13억9백만원 부과.pdf 231129 (보도자료) 방통위, 어도비(Adobe)에 과징금 13억9백만원 부과.pdf
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