“Microsoft Tax” For New PCs In Italy Abolished

I am quite sure that purchasing a desktop computer or a notebook can be considered to be a rite of passage for some, especially when one has extremely limited monetary resources to fall back upon. Having said that, for those who have grown up with Windows all their lives, chances are your purchases would have come with a (legit) copy of Windows pre-installed. Do take note, however, that the pre-installation of Windows is not free, but has already been incorporated into the final sticker price. If you do not want to use Windows, does this mean you have to pay what they call the “Microsoft tax”? This situation was presented in a court case over at the Italian Supreme Court by Marco Ciurcina and co.

First filed 9 years ago in 2005, an Italian man known as Marco Pieraccioli figured out that he should be exempted from forking out more money for the Windows operating system since he does not want to use it. Hence, Marco Pieraccioli claimed that he was entitled to a refund for the Windows license, and that was where the case took off.

Basically, the Italian Supreme Court looked at the user license agreement closer, and if a user does not agree to the conditions set out in the license agreement on a pre-installed OS, they then do happen to have the right to return the OS license and receive a refund in the process. This ruling meant that there is no longer “Microsoft tax”, so to speak, to adhere to, and it is not limited to just Windows from now on. Taxes and computers – this is certainly an interesting ground to tread upon, such as the Hungarian government looking into the possibility of taxing Internet data transfers.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Computers
Tags: Microsoft, os