French Judge Orders Refund For Pre-Installed XP

Quoting:A French electronics retailer must display separately the price of computers and of the software bundled with them, a Paris court ruled Tuesday. It stopped short of ordering the retailer to sell computers without bundled operating system software, however.

The ruling did not satisfy UFC-Que Choisir, the consumer rights group that brought the case, however. It had asked the court to enforce legislation forbidding retailers from making the purchase of one item conditional upon the purchase of another, but the court took no action on that point.

UFC-Que Choisir said it will appeal the decision, fighting for consumers' right to buy a computer and operating system separately, or to choose the software they want when buying a new computer. In practice, the vast majority of PCs sold in France, as elsewhere, come with Windows installed.

The ruling will give little comfort to those wanting to buy a PC on which to run Linux: they will still have to pay for Windows, although they will at least know exactly how much they had to pay for it.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/147547/windows...

January 24, 2011

Quoting:A class action lawsuit against Microsoft has been filed in Italy by a group claiming that it's too difficult to procure a refund for the copies of Windows that come bundled in new PCs.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20029333-75.html

Hope that decision is not a reflection on the general quality of courts and the legal system in Europe. $200 American for OEM Windows?

That's bad law if that's the way it really works over there. No way was any user actually out $200 for bundled Windows. Microsoft doesn't charge nearly that to vendors and vendors tend to recoup some of that cost in crippleware, etc.