- Microsoft continues the fight against the court for the legality of the resale of office licenses and windows
- Valuducinsing claims the Microsoft restricted resale market and requests 270 million pounds sterling in damages
- The result could reshape the future of the European software industry in Europe
Microsoft’s long -standing dispute with Valuducicensing, a British reseller of used licenses for products like Windows and Office, returns to the competition court this week, the American technology giant now arguing that the sale of second -hand office and window licenses is illegal.
Valuducicensing indicates that the trial will focus on the question of whether the entire resale market for Perpetual Microsoft licenses is legal, or even, and that the result could have huge implications for the European software market in Europe.
The dealer maintains that if Microsoft’s argument succeeds, it would mean that used license trading should never have existed in Europe.
A change of position
The affair, which has been taking place for several years now, follows from the allegations of Valuducinsing according to which Microsoft has limited the availability of second -hand licenses.
According to the reseller, Microsoft has given discounts to customers on subscription services if they make their licenses perpetual, which limits the stock available to companies like Valuducensing.
He also alleys that Microsoft has inserted contract clauses that have reduced resale rights in exchange for new price reductions. This strategy, according to allegations, complaints, which cost it 270 million pounds sterling of lost profits.
Microsoft’s defense is based on the assertion that he has copyright not only for the program code, but also on elements such as the graphical user interface.
The technology giant claims that the European software directive does not apply to these components, which means that the resale is not authorized.
The boss of Valuelicensing, Jonathan Horley, said that Microsoft’s position had changed spectacularly, to deny anti-competitive driving to argue that the resale market itself should not exist. “It is a remarkable coincidence that their defense against the Valducicensing has changed so radically from the defense of” we did not do it “to a defense of” the market should never have existed “,” he said.
Microsoft’s position is based on a precedent of the Tom Kabinet decision, which revealed that the software resale was authorized but that the electronic books were different.
Microsoft seeks to place its own products outside the rules that allowed secondary trading by making the software code separate interface.
The decision of the court could determine whether the flourishing trade in Europe in used software survives or disappears entirely.
Via The register
