Microsoft Australia is being taken to court for allegedly misleading 2.7 million local customers over price increases, involving a Copilot integration.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said proceedings had commenced in the Federal Court against Microsoft over communications related to subscription options and price increases, after it integrated its AI assistant, Copilot, into Microsoft 365 plans.
Ms Cass-Gottlieb said the ACCC alleged that since October 31 last year, Microsoft had told subscribers of Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans with auto-renewal enabled that to maintain their subscription they must accept the integration of Copilot and pay higher prices for their plan, or, alternatively, cancel their subscription.
She said the ACCC alleged this information provided to subscribers was false or misleading because there was an undisclosed third option, the Microsoft 365 Personal or Family Classic plans, which allowed subscribers to retain the features of their existing plan, without Copilot, at the previous lower price.
“Following a detailed investigation, we will allege in Court that Microsoft deliberately omitted reference to the Classic plans in its communications and concealed their existence until after subscribers initiated the cancellation process to increase the number of consumers on more expensive Copilot-integrated plans.”
Ms Cass-Gottlieb said following the integration of Copilot, the annual subscription price of the Microsoft 365 Personal plan increased by 45 percent from $109 to $159.
She said the annual subscription price for the Microsoft 365 Family plan increased by 29 percent from $139 to $179.
