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Lenovo Ordered To Refund 'Microsoft Tax'

Posted by Unknown on from the have-a-penny dept.

angry tapir writes with an excerpt from an article over at TechWorld: "A French laptop buyer has won a refund from Lenovo after a four-year legal battle over the cost of a Windows license he didn't want. The judgment could open the way for PC buyers elsewhere in Europe to obtain refunds for bundled software they don't want, according to French campaign group No More Racketware."

3 of 475 comments (clear)

  1. USA? by yakatz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The judgment could open the way for PC buyers elsewhere in Europe to obtain refunds for bundled software they don't want

    Does this say anything for buyers outside Europe? I bought a Lenovo laptop and tried to get them to refund the Windows license I was not planning to use and they said they can't do that.

  2. Re:There is no Microsoft Tax by neonsignal · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You've missed the point - the issue is not the cost to the consumer. It is that there are consumers that do not wish to subsidize Microsoft, no matter whether the money is coming from their own pocket or from some parasitic software company. Do you think after all his time in court that the French laptop buyer actually made a profit on this whole affair? The whole point is for consumers to fight back against the abuse of monopoly positions.

    And you notice that Lenovo does not reveal to the court the actual cost of the licence? They might well have trouble explaining the difference between this cost ("peanuts") and the amount that is being charged for separate licences.

  3. Re:I wonder .. by Missing.Matter · · Score: 4, Interesting
    According to this document:

    MANDATORY: On non-ARM systems, the platform MUST implement the ability for a physically present user to select between two Secure Boot modes in firmware setup: "Custom" and "Standard". Custom Mode allows for more flexibility as specified in the following:a) It shall be possible for a physically present user to use the Custom Mode firmware setup option to modify the contents of the Secure Boot signature databases and the PK. b) If the user ends up deleting the PK then, upon exiting the Custom Mode firmware setup, the system will be operating in Setup Mode with Secure Boot turned off. c) The firmware setup shall indicate if Secure Boot is turned on, and if it is operated in Standard or Custom Mode. The firmware setup must provide an option to return from Custom to Standard Mode which restores the factory defaults.