Australia Sues Microsoft Over AI-linked Subscription Price Hikes (reuters.com) 35
Australia's competition regulator sued Microsoft today, accusing it of misleading millions of customers into paying higher prices for its Microsoft 365 software after bundling it with AI tool Copilot. From a report: The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission alleged that from October 2024, the technology giant misled about 2.7 million customers by suggesting they had to move to higher-priced Microsoft 365 personal and family plans that included Copilot.
After the integration of Copilot, the annual subscription price of the Microsoft 365 personal plan increased by 45% to A$159 ($103.32) and the price of the family plan increased by 29% to A$179, the ACCC said. The regulator said Microsoft failed to clearly tell users that a cheaper "classic" plan without Copilot was still available.
After the integration of Copilot, the annual subscription price of the Microsoft 365 personal plan increased by 45% to A$159 ($103.32) and the price of the family plan increased by 29% to A$179, the ACCC said. The regulator said Microsoft failed to clearly tell users that a cheaper "classic" plan without Copilot was still available.
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Probably because you're a miserable old fuck
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Yeah, I dunno about that.
For one thing, I'm not that old.
But more importantly, I'm not the one on slashdot complaining every fucking day about all the doom and gloom in the world, about how corporations and billionaires are fucking everyone over, about how AI is taking over the world, about how the environment is going to be uninhabitable in X years (where X is a constantly changing value), about how women are all nasty man-hating money grubbing bitches, about how we will all own nothing and be happy about
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Maybe because its 2025 and I shouldn't have to play third world marketplace bargain tactics with every company I do business with?
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The desire for a lower friction less of a pain in the ass economy. The desire not to waste all that effort and energy across the whole economy? A sense of fair dealing and basic honesty? A desire to keep Mr. Haney from Green Acres firmly in the realm of comedic satire?
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Wonderful. I share this desire, but I'm a realist. Caveat emptor rings just as true today, as it did when first coined.
I'll have to take your word on that one.
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Caveat emptor rings just as true today, as it did when first coined.
Right, in other words, third world bargaining tactics.
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Or, and just hear me out on this one. Companies could stop using deceptive and predatory tactics to make a buck?
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Yes, I think we all agree the world would be a better place with more honesty. All of us, except for politicians and marketing execs.
Stop The Fuckening. (Score:3)
It's not clear to me why a business should be required to tell customers that it has cheaper products available.
I mean, when I go buy potato chips and I'm checking out at the register, nobody tells me that a cheaper version than what I picked out is available.
Where is the customer's responsibility to do some due diligence and educate themselves about company's offerings?
In the U.S. (I know story is about Australia), it is very common for cell phone and cable tv companies to offer lower prices on shit without telling existing customers about it. It is up to customers to check prices every once in a while and discover it for themselves. More than once I've gotten a lower price simply by checking, seeing there is a lower price available for whatever I signed for, and then requesting that lower price.
Remember you said that when you have 179 subscriptions to manage in your life. You act as if Greed isn't looking to fuck you in every hole it can. All day, every day.
You already admitted how more than once you've been fucked. And had to un-fuck yourself. See how easy that initial fucking was? See how you're already wondering how you're getting fucked elsewhere right now?
Stop defending Greed and start championing consumer honesty and business ethics instead. Your monthly task list shouldn't have to sta
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I dunno. Seems a lot easier to assume I'm getting fucked than to assume I'm not being fucked.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
I believe the issue here isn't that there's a cheaper subscription available, it's that people who already had the cheaper subscription were "upgraded" to a (significantly) more expensive subscription when the cheaper one was still available without being told it was.
But you probably approve of that, too.
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Well, I can see the issue there. Why were they "upgraded" in the first place?
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Sounds about right.
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Why do you think they were "upgraded"?
"You still have some of our money in your bank account. We'll fix that. Bend over and spread your cheeks."
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Because fuck you, that's why.
--Microsoft Australia.
Re:Why? (Score:4, Informative)
In this case, Microsoft has actually gone out of their way to hide the cheaper options by renaming them in a confusing way and only showing the cheaper options if you refuse to pay the new, higher plan. It's definitely predatory and not at all an innocent misunderstanding.
Atomic Shrimp on Youtube shows this hostile bait-and-switch tactic very clearly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
They're hoping most people just shrug and accept the price increase without realizing they have the option to stay at the current plan.
Good on the ACCC! (Score:2)
I even had to submit this as a solution to get rid of that stupid dingbat out of word, https://techcommunity.microsof... [microsoft.com] (linking to it because I hope it gets used as evidence towards them in court), I don't want copilot and I sure as hell don't want to pay for it.
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What a bunch of dirty rotten scoundrels (Score:2)
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Not yet. Their products still somewhat work, badly, insecurely and wasting their user's time. They will fix that next.
Just Microsoft (Score:2)
Antitrust action against an American corporation? (Score:3)
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Reminds me of this Instagram post: https://www.instagram.com/p/DQ... [instagram.com] FYI Kevin Rudd is the Australian ambassador to the USA.
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Kevin Rudd is an insufferable prick whose hubris lost him an election against a man who had a postbox for a head... and also I would pretend to be him in that situation. Without question.
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yeah we're clearly charging too much for rare earth metals
(we probably are, but that's what happens when your only other source is someone you're trade-warring with to try to impress a domestic audience and also the chief negotiator has dementia)
But MS has a ball room to build! (Score:1)
Well how else is MS supposed to pay for their portion of the White House ball room?
Aussies have balls (Score:2)
M$ sent out an email stating the cost would go up (Score:2)
They clearly stated that they would increase the cost for AI embedded in Office 365. They also mentioned there was an option to keep the same price in the enrollment page if accomplished before the end of the current session. Now trying to find the no AI option was not as straight forward as I would expect. But it did work.
1. Should Microsoft be sued for people not reading their renewal message? Not sure.
2. Should Microsoft make it easier to switch plans? YES!