The transition from product ownership to subscription leasing created a financial addiction for major technology firms. By 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had identified a specific, repeatable architecture of consumer entrapment. This architecture relies on "dark patterns," or user interface designs engineered to subvert intent. While multiple entities face scrutiny under the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act (ROSCA), the strategies employed by Adobe Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. represent the two dominant distinct methodologies of retention-by-force. Amazon utilized cognitive fatigue (Project Iliad), whereas Adobe weaponized financial penalties (The Hidden ETF). Analyzing these two cases reveals the evolution of anti-consumer retention systems.

The FTC filed its complaint against Amazon in June 2023, exposing a retention system named "Project Iliad." The internal naming convention references Homer’s epic regarding the Trojan War, indicating a deliberate design intent to make the cancellation process a long, arduous struggle. Before the lawsuit, Amazon’s interface required a navigational sequence that the FTC described as a "four-page, six-click, fifteen-option" labyrinth. This structure did not exist to process a request. It functioned to exhaust the user.