Overview
- Shutterstock agreed to a $35 million settlement to resolve FTC charges that it misled customers about plan terms and made cancellations difficult, with the agency saying the payout will provide full consumer relief.
- The FTC said the company's “annual, paid monthly” plan renewed automatically and imposed substantial fees on users who tried to cancel early.
- According to the complaint, customers who sought to cancel faced long phone wait times, extra email steps, and eight pages of materials before they could finish the process.
- The agency alleged that on‑demand “packs” marketed for one‑time projects renewed after one year and refilled once fully used, a condition it said was not clearly disclosed.
- Shutterstock did not admit or deny wrongdoing, and its separate sale to Getty Images announced in January 2025 is still under review by U.S. and European regulators.