How it gets in your way
A retention offer, pause, marketing consent, or continued renewal may already be selected.
Home / Deceptive patterns / Preselection
When the choice to stay is already selected
A choice is selected in advance, making the company’s preferred outcome happen unless the customer notices and changes it. Defaults become problematic when they quietly preserve renewal or add another commitment.
1companies in this review1documented examples1current or recent
Limited current coverage. This page explains the warning sign, but we have only 1 current or recent record that meet our publishing standard. Older examples are labeled separately.
You can check every example yourself. We show the date, the original source and whether it came from company instructions, a regulator, customer reports or an older record.
How to get past it
Review every selected option and confirm that auto-renewal is off before leaving the page.
Where we have seen it
Open a company for its full cancellation guide, or read the source behind the example. We keep current instructions, regulator records, customer reports and older material clearly separated. One example never tells the whole story of a company.
1 of 1 examples
Adobe Creative CloudRegulator allegation
checked August 27, 2026
checked August 27, 2026
FTC and DOJ allegations concerning hidden termination fees and cancellation hurdles
- Published
- June 17, 2024
- Reported by
- Federal Trade Commission
The pending federal case alleges that Adobe obscured an early termination fee, preselected an annual plan billed monthly, and placed multiple hurdles in cancellation paths.
Where this warning sign shows up in our guides
Open an industry report to compare cancellation access, notice periods, contracts and follow-up work across providers.
What it can look like
- Pause for three months is selected before the final confirmation.
- A box agreeing to a replacement plan is checked automatically.
- The customer must actively deselect continued renewal while completing another account change.
These are clues, not proof on their own. The company records above show where similar behavior has been documented.
Leave with proof, not a promise
- Identify the company or app store that actually bills you.
- Record the renewal date, notice deadline and current plan name.
- Choose cancellation rather than pause, downgrade or a reminder.
- Check add-ons, financed equipment and separate subscriptions.
- Save the confirmation, effective date and final amount.
- Review the next statement and escalate with your evidence if another charge appears.
Pattern names draw on the Deceptive Patterns taxonomy. We wrote the explanations, examples, and practical advice for this site.