{"id":246670,"date":"2025-11-06T05:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T05:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/246670\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T05:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T05:02:08","slug":"microsoft-to-refund-customers-over-subscription-price-increase-for-ai-add-on-australia-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/246670\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft to refund customers over subscription price increase for AI add-on | Australia news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost three million Australians will be offered refunds after Microsoft<\/a> apologised for the way it charged customers to access its artificial intelligence tools.<\/p>\n

Microsoft Australia emailed the offer to software subscribers on Thursday and admits the pricing structure and plans lacked clarity and fell short of its standards.<\/p>\n

The apology comes 10 days after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) launched legal action against Microsoft Australia<\/a> and its parent company in the federal court, claiming it had misled consumers about the price of their subscriptions and the availability of cheaper plans without AI tools.<\/p>\n

The US firm could face multimillion-dollar penalties if the court finds in the commission\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n

Microsoft Australia began sending messages to Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers on Thursday morning, outlining available plans and apologising for a lack of clarity about them.<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

The plans include $16 and $18 per month packages that include access to the company\u2019s AI assistant Copilot, and $11 and $14 \u201cclassic\u201d subscriptions that do not include the tool.<\/p>\n

Microsoft said subscribers who opt to switch back to the cheaper plans before the end of 2025 would receive refunds dating back to payments made after 30 November 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur relationship is based on trust and transparency and we apologise for falling short of our standards,\u201d the email said.<\/p>\n

In its lawsuit, the commission alleges Microsoft misled about 2.7 million subscribers into paying higher prices to maintain their subscriptions with Copilot added and were not advised of a cheaper alternative.<\/p>\n

Only when subscribers sought to cancel their service were they told about a non-AI option, commission chair, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re concerned that Microsoft\u2019s communications denied its customers the opportunity to make informed decisions about their subscription options,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In a statement<\/a>, Microsoft Australia said the company should have done better.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn hindsight, we could have been clearer about the availability of a non-AI-enabled offering with subscribers, not just to those who opted to cancel their subscription,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our email to subscribers, we expressed our regret for not being clearer about our subscription options, shared details about lower priced alternatives that come without AI, and offered a refund to eligible subscribers who wish to switch.\u201d<\/p>\n

While customer refunds could cost the company millions of dollars, Microsoft could also face large fines if the watchdog pursues and is successful in its lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Maximum penalties<\/a> for corporations found guilty of anti-competitive practices include a $50m fine, three times the value of the misleading act, or 30% of the company\u2019s adjusted turnover during the breach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost three million Australians will be offered refunds after Microsoft apologised for the way it charged customers to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-246670","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}