- Microsoft continues the court match on the legality of resale of office and Windows licenses
- Valuelicensing claims Microsoft Restricted resale market and is looking for £ 270 million in compensation
- The result could reshape the future of Europe’s used software industry
Microsoft’s long-standing conflict with Valuelicensing, a British retailer of pre-owned licenses for products such as Windows and Office, returns to Competition Appeal Tribunal this week, with the US Tech giant now claiming it is illegal to sell pre-owned office and Windows licenses.
Valuelicensing says the trial will focus on whether the entire resale market for eternal Microsoft licenses is legal or actually ever, and the result can have huge consequences for Europe’s popular used software market.
The dealer claims that if Microsoft’s argument succeeds, it would mean that used licensing trade should never have existed in Europe.
A change of attitude
The case, which has been going on for several years now, stems from Valuelicensing’s claims that Microsoft limited the availability of pre-owned licenses.
According to the dealer, Microsoft offered customers discounts on subscription services if they surrendered their perpetual licenses, which limited the stock available to companies such as Valuelicensing.
It also claims that Microsoft deployed contract clauses that limited resale rights in return for further price cuts. This strategy, Valuelicensing claims, cost £ 270 million in lost profits.
Microsoft’s defense rests on the claim that it owns copyright not only to program code, but also for items such as the graphic user interface.
The technology giant says the European Software Directive does not apply to such components, which means that resale is not allowed.
Valuelicensing chief Jonathan Horley said Microsoft’s attitude had changed dramatically, from refusing a competitive behavior to arguing that the resale market itself should not exist. “It is a remarkable coincidence that their defense against valuelicensing has changed so dramatically from being a defense of ‘we did not’ to a defense of ‘the market should never have existed,’ he said.
Microsoft’s attitude draws on a precedent from the Tom Cabinet decision, which found that software vider sales were allowed, but e-books were different.
Microsoft is trying to place its own products outside the rules that enabled secondary trading by making the interface separate from software code.
The court’s decision could determine whether Europe’s thriving trade in pre-owned software survives or disappears completely.
Via Registered
