Adobe Will Pay $3 Million To Settle Allegations Of Kickbacks

The U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday that Adobe Inc (ADBE.O), the company which makes Photoshop, has agreed to pay $3 million in settlement of U.S. charges regarding kickbacks involving federal software sales, according to a statement from the company.

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As part of the settlement, Adobe has agreed to resolve allegations that it improperly paid rebates to companies that had contracts with the federal government or other relationships with the federal government that allowed them to influence federal purchases of Adobe software under its Solution Partner program.

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According to information supplied by the Justice Department, Adobe allegedly paid a percentage of the purchase price of the software to the companies from January 2011 to December 2020.

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As a result of Adobe's improper payments to Adobe, according to the U.S., false claims for payment were filed to the federal agencies, which led to Adobe causing false claims for payment to be submitted thereby committing a prohibited kickback violation.

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There is no doubt that the company has cooperated with the government so far since it began its investigation in 2018. It said on Thursday that it was pleased "to have this matter behind us at this point."

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Those doing business with the government are prohibited from paying kickbacks, otherwise unnecessary purchases can be made at the taxpayer's expense, according to Brian Boynton, the head of the Department of Justice's civil division, who stressed that kickbacks may result in unnecessary purchases and increase taxpayer costs.

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It is important for the federal procurement process to remain transparent and to maintain the integrity of the process. We will use all appropriate tools to achieve this," Boynton said.