- microsoft faces Australian lawsuit over unfair software program pricing
- ACCC lawsuit alleges Microsoft 365 customers weren’t knowledgeable of cheaper choices
- Up to 2.7 million customers could possibly be affected
Microsoft is being sued by Austria’s client watchdog for allegedly deceptive hundreds of thousands of customers about its Microsoft 365 platform.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) says the corporate really helpful customers adjust to an automated renewal settlement on its Microsoft 365 bundle, though cheaper or extra helpful gives can be found.
Up to 2.7 million customers of the Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans may have been affected and will now obtain a portion of the fee if the case is profitable.
Microsoft 365 pricing lawsuit
He ACCC grievance alleges that Microsoft failed to offer ample recommendation to customers after including its Copilot AI platform to the 365 platform in Australia in October 2024.
Users with a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family plan have been allegedly informed that this Copilot integration would imply they must pay a better value in the event that they wished to maintain their current subscription.
However, in its grievance, the ACCC says Microsoft offered customers with “false or deceptive” data, as a result of there was an undisclosed third choice: Microsoft 365 Personal or Family Classic plans, which allowed subscribers to maintain the options of their current plan, with out Copilot, on the earlier lower cost.
The ACCC notes that the corporate despatched two emails and printed a weblog publish informing auto-renewal subscribers concerning the new integration, together with pricing data, however apparently failed to say that various plans have been obtainable, and customers themselves would don’t have any means of discovering their existence except they actively started the method of canceling their subscription.
The grievance notes that these weren’t small value will increase both, with the annual subscription value of the Microsoft 365 Personal plan rising 45% from AU$109 to AU$159, and the Microsoft 365 Family plan rising 29% from AU$139 to AU$179.
“The Microsoft Office purposes included in 365 subscriptions are important to many individuals’s lives and, as there are restricted substitutes for the included bundle, canceling the subscription is a call that many wouldn’t make evenly,” stated ACCC President Gina Cass-Gottlieb.
“We are involved that Microsoft’s communications denied its clients the chance to make knowledgeable choices about their subscription choices, which included the flexibility to maintain all of the options of their current plan with out Copilot and at a lower cost,” Cass-Gottlieb stated.
“We imagine many Microsoft 365 clients would have opted for the Classic plan if they’d identified all of the choices obtainable.”
The ACCC says it’s in search of orders “together with penalties, injunctions, declarations, client compensation and prices”, noting that the utmost wonderful for every breach of the Australian Consumer Law is greater than $50 million, that means Microsoft may face a expensive payout if the case is profitable.
The firm additionally faces a multi-billion pound authorized declare within the UK for alleged anti-competitive habits and unfair software program licensing practices, and is at the moment concerned in a long-running dispute with ValueLicensing over the sale of used Office and Windows licenses.