Judge says that new Windows PC buyers can ask for refunds

Oct 27, 2014 14:34 GMT  ·  By

The Italian Supreme Court, or Corte di Cassazione as Italians call it, finally made a decision on what many called the “Microsoft tax,” ruling that buyers of new Windows PCs can ask for a refund if they do not want to use Redmond’s operating system.

The process was started by Italian Marco Pieraccioli against a hardware manufacturer in 2005, requiring a refund after purchasing a computer which was shipped with a pre-installed copy of Windows. Pieracciolli said that he didn’t want to use Windows on his computer, and since the pre-installed solution came to no help, he wanted it to be removed and get a refund for not running it.

Following this ruling, every new Windows PC buyer can get a refund for the price of the Windows license installed on his computer.

Needless to say, this news came as a big win for the Free Software Foundation, an organization that promotes the use of Linux and has criticized Microsoft for many of its practices, including bundling Windows on new PC sales.

The “Microsoft tax” abolished the benefit of saving money

Marco Ciurcina, a lawyer who worked on this case, wrote in a guest post for the Free Software Foundation that this case is living proof that, by charging people for the Windows license they received with new computers, Microsoft abolished what he calls “the benefit of saving money.”

“Now the secondary benefit must be available,” he wrote, explaining that every Italian purchasing a new computer can ask for a refund for the Windows license that they do not intend to use.

He believes that by asking for refunds, users would be more tempted to try Linux, a free platform that can be installed on an unlimited number of computers at absolutely no cost and which is currently considered one of the main Windows rivals.

Ruling not only aimed at Microsoft

Ciurcina says that the Italian judge’s ruling is aimed not only at Microsoft, but at all the other companies that are selling devices with preinstalled software.

According to court documents, anyone “who buys a computer on which a given operational software (operating system) was preinstalled by the manufacturer has the right […]to retain the computer returning only the software covered by the license he did not accept, with refund of the part of the price that specifically relates to it.”

Microsoft hasn’t yet issued a statement on this, but we’ve already contacted the company for a word and will update the article when and if we get an answer.