Adobe shuts down Photoshop in Venezuela because of Trump’s sanctions

Adobe users in Venezuela woke up to some horrible news today: The company is blocking them from using any Adobe software, including its flagship Photoshop project. And come October 28, Venezuelan Adobe users who have not download all their documents from Adobe’s cloud storage service will have their accounts deactivated and be unable to access their work.

The harsh move comes after the U.S. government-issued Executive Order 13884, which prohibits most transactions and services between U.S. companies, entities, and individuals in Venezuela. In order to be compliant with the order, Adobe has no choice but to ban all of its Venezuelan users from using their software.

What’s worse is that the order also bans U.S. companies from issuing refunds to customers in Venezuela, meaning Venezuelan Adobe users won’t be getting reimbursed for the subscriptions fees they pay Adobe to access their software. The ban also includes free products, like Adobe Reader.

As for when Adobe will return to Venezuela, Adobe says, “Executive Order 13884 was issued with no expiration date—the decision to rescind it rests solely with the U.S. Government. We will continue to monitor developments closely and will make every effort to restore services to Venezuela as soon as it is legally permissible to do so.”

But Venezuelans may have more to worry about than Adobe, as Executive Order 13884 bans all companies from having transactions and offering services to people there. That means other tech companies may soon announce they are forced to follow Adobe’s lead.

Update: Adobe reached out with the following updated statement:

Two important points of clarification from Adobe on the recent U.S. Executive Order regarding Venezuela.

We can confirm that Behance will continue to be accessible in Venezuela. And, Customers who purchased directly from Adobe will be refunded by the end of the month. We are working with our partners on the same. We regret the difficulties this causes our customers. We will share more details about how our operations and customer activities might be impacted, as they become available.