A French court in Puteaux this week ordered Acer, the world's third largest computer maker to refund a customer who did not want the preloaded Microsoft Windows operating system and other applications.
Acer had tried to settle the case with its French customer Antoine Gutzwiller, offering him 30 euro. Gutzwiller refused and took Acer to court.
The court ruled on July 23 that Acer had to refund 311,85 euro for the entire collection of pre-installed software. The company was also ordered to pay a fine of 500 euro and 150 euro to cover Gutzwiller's legal fees. The court's published its decision on 18 September.
The court referred in its decision to Acer's contract, which states the possibility of refunds for unused software.
"It is a very clear ruling", Alain Coulais, spokesperson for Détaxe, a activist group targeting the sale of computers with pre-installed software, told the French IT news site Zdnet. For the first time a complete refund was ordered. Twice before a French court ordered partial refunds, while two other courts had thrown out similar cases. A decision in another such case is expected next week.
Gutzwiller had bought the Acer laptop for 599 euro last year.
Competition
Last week, the Globalisation Institute, a conservative free market think tank, advised the European Commission to require all PCs are to be sold without a pre-installed operating system. "There is no meaningful competition between operating systems", the institute argues in the policy advisory. "Microsoft's dominant position is not in the public interest. It limits the market and has slowed technical development to the prejudice of consumers."
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Further information:
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The court's decision (pdf, in French)
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Zdnet article (in French)