Microsoft Faces Uk Class Action Lawsuit Over Licensing

Plaintiff says firm’s actions ‘have had a important and far-reaching effect connected UK consumers, businesses, and nationalist bodies.’ Billions of pounds are perchance astatine stake.

Microsoft faces much ineligible action successful nan UK, this clip from a barrister named Alexander Wolfson who issued an opt-out people action declare this week alleging that nationalist aliases backstage organizations successful nan UK that purchased definite package licenses (including for Microsoft Office and Windows) since October 1, 2015, were overcharged owed to Microsoft’s marketplace practices.

Wolfson, who retained nan services of Stewarts LLP, a litigation-only rule firm, said successful a release issued connected Wednesday, “Microsoft’s actions person had a important and far-reaching effect connected UK consumers, businesses, and nationalist bodies.”

This claim, he said, “seeks to clasp Microsoft to relationship and to unafraid compensation for nan galore affected members of nan class. With billions of pounds perchance astatine stake, this lawsuit is astir ensuring fairness successful nan integer marketplace and ensuring moreover nan largest tech companies play by nan rules.”

“Microsoft’s behaviour has had a profound and costly effect connected millions of individuals and backstage and nationalist assemblage organizations that trust connected its package for regular business operations,” said Kate Pollock, nan caput of title litigation astatine Stewarts. “We judge that Microsoft abused its marketplace power by imposing restrictive licensing practices that efficaciously unopen down title and inflated prices.”

Highlights an industry-wide issue

An FAQ created by nan plaintiff explained nan format of nan suit: “Opt-out corporate proceedings are a typical shape of tribunal proceedings that alteration a people typical to bring a declare connected behalf of a defined people of persons successful nan UK affected by an infringement of title law,” it said. “This intends that if your statement fits wrong nan people meaning you will automatically beryllium included successful nan declare and will beryllium bound by immoderate judgement aliases colony unless you take to opt-out of nan proceedings.”

Ellora MacPherson, managing head and main finance serviceman astatine Harbour, which has agreed to money nan case, described nan suit arsenic “likely to beryllium 1 of nan largest nan UK has seen and is an illustration of really large firm entities tin beryllium held to account.”

Forrester Senior Analyst Dario Maisto pointed retired Wednesday via email, “this is not nan first clip that Microsoft gets attraction for allegedly unfair commercialized practices. Microsoft was besides sued successful nan UK successful 2024 over allegations that it overcharged Windows Server customers to usage nan package connected competing unreality platforms.”

He added, “the Cloud Infrastructure Providers successful Europe statement (CISPE) took a akin action connected Microsoft’s licensing practices erstwhile its unreality computing competitors revenge a title against Microsoft with nan European Commission.”

According to Maisto, “while it is wholly understandable why rule firms and competitors support engaging successful specified lawsuits against Microsoft, we should yet admit that these are each symptoms of a bigger issue, that is, group and organizations’ utmost [dependence] connected third-party proprietary solutions and a basal deficiency of replacement standards.”

This is, he said, nan problem that we arsenic an IT manufacture request to solve, arsenic we cannot support relying connected circumstantial lawsuits to reside — 1 astatine a clip — each nan problems of what we could commencement to specify now arsenic a overmuch broader marketplace disfunction.” 

Computerworld reached retired to Microsoft for a remark but astatine property clip had not received a response.