Shutterstock to pay $35 million over misleading subscriptions, cancellations

Shutterstock will pay $35 million to resolve Federal Trade Commission charges that it misled consumers about subscription plans and made cancellations unnecessarily difficult, a case that adds another high-profile name to the agency’s campaign against subscription traps. The FTC said the money will provide full relief to harmed consumers and that the settlement requires stronger disclosures, express informed consent before billing and simpler cancellation paths for negative-option features.

The complaint said Shutterstock Inc. had offered most of its content through online subscriptions since at least 2020, including annual paid-up-front plans, annual paid-monthly plans and on-demand packs. Regulators said the company promoted some packs as “Best for a one-time project” and “no commitment” while failing to properly disclose that the packs automatically renewed when the last download was used and, until early 2024, automatically renewed after one year. The agency also said the desktop enrollment flow for annual paid-monthly subscriptions often did not clearly disclose auto-renewal or early cancellation fees.

The FTC said the exit process was just as problematic. Consumers who wanted out could face long phone waits, multiple email follow-up steps and online cancellation flows that stretched across multiple pages, with some users required to click through as many as eight screens before completing the process. That kind of friction is central to the agency’s broader crackdown on dark patterns, the manipulative design choices that make it easier to sign up than to leave.

Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said firms must clearly disclose material terms, secure informed consent and make cancellation straightforward, warning that failures in those areas undercut consumer choice and competition. The commission has been pressing that message for months. In a July 2024 review with international consumer protection networks, the FTC said a large share of examined subscription websites and apps may use dark patterns, underscoring how common the problem has become across the digital economy.

The settlement lands at a sensitive moment for Shutterstock. The company and Getty Images announced a merger of equals on January 7, 2025, saying the combined business would be named Getty Images Holdings, Inc. and have an enterprise value of about $3.7 billion. Getty said the deal could deliver annual cost synergies of $150 million to $200 million by year three, but the transaction remains under regulatory review in the United States and Europe. For Shutterstock, the FTC penalty now sits alongside that antitrust scrutiny, turning a billing dispute into a broader test of how subscription businesses must balance growth with transparency.