- UK court dismisses Microsoft’s arguments against ValueLicensing
- ValueLicensing intends to request £270 million from Microsoft
- Microsoft says it will appeal the decision
The UK Competition Appeal Tribunal has ruled that Microsoft cannot stop customers from reselling perpetual software licences, marking the end of a years-long debate.
The debate began in 2021, when ValueLicensing sought £270 million on the grounds that Microsoft used contracts to prevent the resale of licenses and, despite the latter arguing that the resale of licenses infringed copyright, the company failed to get its way.
The Court concluded that enterprise agreements ultimately create multiple licenses, not a single multi-user license, so no subdivision would be necessary to resell the licenses.
Microsoft lost its license resale case
Since Microsoft’s distribution and reproduction rights do not prevent the resale of parts of bulk licenses, the Court found that the resale was legal.
ValueLicensing also notes that, starting around 2011, Microsoft moved customers from perpetual licenses to its Microsoft 365 subscription, requiring customers (like ValueLicensing) to surrender or retain perpetual licenses they no longer needed.
Argument number two relates to Office and Windows, including non-copyrighted elements of the program (such as icons, fonts, clipart, and resource/help files). The Court concluded that buyers purchase Microsoft software as computer programs, not as collections of artistic works, and therefore Microsoft lost this battle as well.
The Court “unanimously[ly]” ruled against Microsoft on both issues.
“ValueLicensing has always believed that it was running a legitimate business supported by the principles of the European Software Directive and the EU Court of Justice’s UsedSoft ruling,” said ValueLicensing CEO Jonathan Horley (via The Registry).
“Now that these preliminary issues have been decided, we look forward to pursuing the claim against Microsoft.”
Microsoft said The Registry He does not agree with the decision and intends to appeal.
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