{"id":147063,"date":"2025-10-27T01:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T01:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/147063\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T01:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T01:49:07","slug":"australia-sues-microsoft-over-ai-linked-subscription-price-hikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/147063\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia sues Microsoft over AI-linked subscription price hikes"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul data-testid=\"Summary\" class=\"summary-module__summary__QjADA\">\n<li data-testid=\"Body\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 text-module__regular__qJJtA text-module__small__sph8i body-module__base__o--Cl body-module__small_body__gOmDf summary-module__point__UgXPz\">Microsoft 365 personal plan price increased by 45%<\/li>\n<li data-testid=\"Body\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 text-module__regular__qJJtA text-module__small__sph8i body-module__base__o--Cl body-module__small_body__gOmDf summary-module__point__UgXPz\">Cheaper &#8216;classic&#8217; plan only revealed during cancellation process<\/li>\n<li data-testid=\"Body\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 text-module__regular__qJJtA text-module__small__sph8i body-module__base__o--Cl body-module__small_body__gOmDf summary-module__point__UgXPz\">Regulator seeks penalties, consumer redress and costs from Microsoft<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Oct 27 (Reuters) &#8211; Australia&#8217;s competition regulator on Monday sued Microsoft <a data-testid=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/markets\/companies\/MSFT.O\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__inherit-color__PhuPF text-module__inherit-font__1P1hv text-module__inherit-size__EyiQW link-module__link__INqxZ link-module__underline_default__-okuC link-module__with-icon__qlg76\">(MSFT.O), opens new tab<\/a>, accusing it of misleading millions of customers into paying higher prices for its Microsoft 365 software after bundling it with artificial intelligence tool Copilot.<\/p>\n<p>The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) alleged that from October 2024, the technology giant misled about 2.7 million customers by suggesting they had to move to higher-priced Microsoft 365 personal and family plans that included Copilot.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"promo-box\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 text-module__regular__qJJtA text-module__small__sph8i body-module__base__o--Cl body-module__small_body__gOmDf article-body-module__promo-box__hVl8h\"> Sign up  <a data-testid=\"Link\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/asia-pacific\/australia-takes-microsoft-court-says-it-misled-27-million-customers-2025-10-26\/undefined?location=article-paragraph&amp;redirectUrl=%2Fworld%2Fasia-pacific%2Faustralia-takes-microsoft-court-says-it-misled-27-million-customers-2025-10-26%2F\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__inherit-color__PhuPF text-module__inherit-font__1P1hv text-module__inherit-size__EyiQW link-module__link__INqxZ link-module__underline_default__-okuC\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>After the integration of Copilot, the annual subscription price of the Microsoft 365 personal plan increased by 45% to A$159 ($103.32) and the price of the family plan increased by 29% to A$179, the ACCC said.<\/p>\n<p>The regulator said Microsoft failed to clearly tell users that a cheaper \u201cclassic\u201d plan without Copilot was still available.<\/p>\n<p>The watchdog said the option to keep the cheaper plan was only revealed after consumers began the cancellation process, a design it argued breached Australian consumer law by failing to disclose material information and creating a false impression of available choices.<\/p>\n<p>Microsoft&#8217;s previous communications through emails and a blog post failed to mention the cheaper alternative, only informing customers that the price increase would apply at the next auto-renewal, the ACCC said.<\/p>\n<p>A Microsoft spokesperson said in an emailed response that it was reviewing the ACCC&#8217;s claim in detail.<\/p>\n<p>The ACCC is seeking penalties, consumer redress, injunctions and costs from Microsoft Australia Pty Ltd and its U.S. parent, Microsoft Corp.<\/p>\n<p>The ACCC said the maximum penalty that could be imposed on a company for each breach of Australian consumer law was the greater of A$50 million, three times the benefits obtained that were reasonably attributable, or 30% of the corporation&#8217;s adjusted turnover during the breach period if the value of the benefits could not be determined.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Any penalty that might apply to this conduct is a matter for the Court to determine and would depend on the Court\u2019s findings,&#8221; the regulator said. &#8220;The ACCC will not comment on what penalties the Court may impose.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>($1 = 1.5389 Australian dollars)<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"SignOff\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 text-module__regular__qJJtA text-module__extra_small__8Buss body-module__full_width__kCIGb body-module__extra_small_body__Bfz20 sign-off-module__text__LQAMP\">Reporting by Sneha Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Kim Coghill and Jamie Freed<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"Body\" dir=\"ltr\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 text-module__regular__qJJtA text-module__small__sph8i body-module__base__o--Cl body-module__small_body__gOmDf article-body-module__element__5eCce article-body-module__trust-badge__5mS3f\">Our Standards: <a data-testid=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thomsonreuters.com\/en\/about-us\/trust-principles.html\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"text-module__text__0GDob text-module__dark-grey__UFC18 text-module__medium__2Rl30 text-module__small__sph8i link-module__link__INqxZ link-module__underline_default__-okuC link-module__with-icon__qlg76\">The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reutersagency.com\/en\/licensereuterscontent\/?utm_medium=rcom-article-media&amp;utm_campaign=rcom-rcp-lead\" target=\"_blank\" dir=\"ltr\" class=\"button-module__link__A3sD0 button-module__secondary__70gBu button-module__round__QDFgq button-module__w_auto__Sem-F\" data-testid=\"LicenceContentButton\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Purchase Licensing Rights<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Microsoft 365 personal plan price increased by 45% Cheaper &#8216;classic&#8217; plan only revealed during cancellation process Regulator seeks&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[261],"tags":[86742,291,82519,82793,289,290,2786,82708,82709,82758,82794,82500,85474,82530,82531,82529,18,32356,82503,86743,45748,19,17,84435,84436,82798,721,86744,82565,82524,83810,82510,82964,82558,83363,82791,84109,86741,82512,84338,84106,84107,15170,82801,753,82,82999,30150,82533,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-147063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-acb","9":"tag-ai","10":"tag-amers","11":"tag-arti","12":"tag-artificial-intelligence","13":"tag-artificialintelligence","14":"tag-asia","15":"tag-au","16":"tag-aunz","17":"tag-bisv","18":"tag-clj","19":"tag-cmpny","20":"tag-crim","21":"tag-destocabsm","22":"tag-destousbsm","23":"tag-destoustcm","24":"tag-eire","25":"tag-fin","26":"tag-fins","27":"tag-fraud1","28":"tag-gen","29":"tag-ie","30":"tag-ireland","31":"tag-itse","32":"tag-itse1","33":"tag-judic","34":"tag-legal","35":"tag-monop","36":"tag-mtpix","37":"tag-namer","38":"tag-privt","39":"tag-publ","40":"tag-regs","41":"tag-reuters-legal","42":"tag-rsbiregulatory-oversight","43":"tag-rulesmagnificent-seven","44":"tag-rulesmarkets-microsoft","45":"tag-rulesworld-australia","46":"tag-sci","47":"tag-semi","48":"tag-sofw","49":"tag-sofw1","50":"tag-sustainable-business","51":"tag-swit","52":"tag-tech","53":"tag-technology","54":"tag-teeq","55":"tag-tmt","56":"tag-topnws","57":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}