Cricut supports plan to add subscription fees to millions of devices [Updated]

Update, 17:24 EDT: After a few days of public backlash, Cricut CEO Ashish Arora announced that the company was withdrawing the retrospective need for existing customers to start subscribing to the platform.

“We will continue to allow an unlimited number of personal image and pattern uploads for members with a Cricut account registered before December 31, 2021 and activated with a cutting machine,” Arora said in an open letter to consumers writing. “If a machine is resold or transferred to a new user, the new user must set up their own Cricut account.”

Arora added that the company is investigating ‘affordable ways for future users’ who are also registering to upload an unlimited number of cartridges by the end of this year.

Original story, 16:36 EDT: Another company that makes Internet-connected devices is drawing the ire of customers by demanding a monthly subscription fee, long after users have already sunk hundreds of dollars into its products. This time, the company is Cricut, which has only told customers that they are losing the ability to upload more than a few cartridges per month unless they start docking.

What is Cricut?

Cricut makes manufacturing machines that enable precise detail work for millions of users. It’s like the reverse of a printer: instead of putting your design on paper, it cuts your design into paper, cardboard, vinyl, fabric or other materials. The devices and accessories are widely sold in specialty craft and fabric stores such as Michaels or Jo-Ann, as well as by major retailers such as Walmart, Target and Amazon. The devices are sold at base prices of $ 179 and above, without the cost of necessary tools, accessories and refills.

You control the machines by using a program called Design Space on your phone or computer. The principle has not changed since the home page publishing software came out in the 1990s. You place a pattern in Design Space and the Cricut cuts the pattern into the material you loaded into it. Users have access to an extensive library of patterns and templates via Design Space; some are free, while others cost from a few cents to a few dollars each.

Owners can also design their own patterns if they feel particularly creative or ambitious, or they can buy what they are looking for from other members of the craftsmanship community on platforms like Etsy. You’re uploading the custom design to Design Space – it’s software you’ve installed on your own computer, tablet or phone – and you’re ready to go.

Until now, anyway.

What is happening?

Cricut dropped a major change in feature update announcement last Friday: Any Cricut device owner doing so not subscribing to the Cricut Access cloud platform will be limited to no more than 20 upload / import per month to Design Space. (Designs using elements sold by Cricut through Design Space do not count towards the limit.) The change applies not only to new users but also to existing owners.

The company can do this because apparently you are not importing a JPEG pattern that you have created or downloaded onto your computer into the software, but into the cloud. However, the product descriptions on Cricut devices do not make the requirement for cloud connectivity explicit. From Michaels, for example:

Many customers are, as you would expect, furious that they are now being told to increase a subscription fee of at least $ 7.99 per month to use a device they already own, especially since the company also said it plans to to submit to an initial audience. supply of stock. A quick look at Facebook comments and tweets to the company shows an endless amount of users expressing their anger and threatening to switch to competitive products.

It sounds depressingly familiar …

As the 21st century has given us a plethora of Internet-connected devices, it has also given us many opportunities to see businesses change the terms on customers who have already purchased a product, leaving users sitting on heaps of rubbish for which they pay big bucks. has. .

Last year, for example, Wink, the smart home hub, warned just one week that they should start paying a subscription fee or completely lose access to the hardware they have been using for several years.

Wink at least stayed put. More generally, companies include the servers that feed products from light bulbs to scales or pet food, which turn expensive electronics into useless bricks.

Unfortunately, the user license agreements for all of Cricut’s products contain an overly general provision that allows the company (its parent company, Provo Crafts) to update the EULA so that it ‘reflects changes in business practices’ whenever it wishes. The consumer right? Stop using the thing.

Are these kinds of things even legal? Why?

The answer is tentatively unsatisfactory: things are only illegal if there are laws that pay attention to them, and this space has so far not really been specific. However, this may change.

There are absolutely state and federal laws against unfair and misleading consumer practices – which most people regard as ‘false advertising’, even though actual laws cover a wider and more specific area. At the national level, the Federal Trade Commission maintains those regulations. At the state level, it usually falls under the sections of consumer protection in the offices of Attorney General. Consumer Reports’ Justin Brookman, who previously worked for the Federal Trade Commission, speculated on Twitter that a factual change such as the one brought about by Cricut may violate laws against unfair and misleading acts and practices.

That said, connected devices are still a new area in terms of regulation. When the FTC files complaints against a smart device company about unfair or misleading practices, the complaints usually focus on issues regarding the privacy of consumer data, focusing on times when users’ personal information is poorly secured or secretly shared. In general, as long as a company discloses what it does in its license agreement, privacy policy and / or terms of service, it can do so legally, even if it is consumer-friendly. (There are some specific and important exceptions.)

The FTC is looking at dark patterns on websites and apps that mislead consumers into making certain adverse decisions. Maybe some kind of “dark entry” analysis could follow. Meanwhile, it leaves consumers where consumers usually end up: getting redress in civil court.

Three smart hub users filed a lawsuit against Wink last year, asking for class action status. In the complaint (PDF), they allege that Wink’s addition of the monthly fee involves a “fraudulent bait-and-link pricing scheme,” in violation of federal and state laws against misleading or misleading business practices. However, Wink’s Terms of Service contain a mandatory binding arbitration clause that impedes customers’ right to sue. Some courts have questioned the validity of similar clauses by other companies in recent months, but it’s anyone’s guess how a judge might rule in a particular case.