Microsoft accused of price gouging in Vista downgrade lawsuit
We’re finally on the home stretch to the release of Windows 7, Microsoft’s new operating system which it hopes will put the nightmare that was Vista behind it. However, Vista, and Microsoft’s business practices involved in getting the OS universally adopted, still has the ability to come back and haunt the company.
On February 11, 2009, Emma Alvarado of Los Angeles, filed a lawsuit in a Seattle federal court over the $59.25 fee she was charged to downgrade from Windows Vista to XP. Alvarado was seeking compensatory damages claiming Microsoft was violating Washington state’s unfair business practices and consumer protection laws.
Now, according to ComputerWorld, she has revised the lawsuit to add much greater detail to the ways she believes Microsoft profited from its Vista downgrade policies. Alvarado’s main complaint relates to the way downgrades were limited to Windows XP Professional, and that in order to downgrade in the first place, Vista Business or Vista Ultimate had to be pre-installed on the computer in the first place.
The suit states:
Microsoft appears to have conceived and implemented the ‘right’ for consumers to ‘downgrade’ to the Windows XP Professional operating system in order to: (a) maintain and/or inflate its sales figures for the Vista operating systems (particularly the Vista Business and Vista Ultimate versions … and (b) recoup its substantial investment in the development and production of the Vista operating system by forcing consumers to purchase the premium, more expensive versions of the Vista operating system (Vista Business or Vista Ultimate) in order to ‘downgrade’ to the Windows XP operating system.
This change to the lawsuit does seem to have merit. The vast majority of home users have no need for either Vista Business or Vista Ultimate, let alone XP Professional. But Microsoft seems to have insisted on those versions of the OS being the ones used in the downgrading process, and potentially, made a lot of money in the process.
The suit continues:
Prior to permitting the consumer to ‘downgrade’ to Windows XP Professional, Microsoft first mandates that the consumer ‘upgrade’ from Vista Home Basic or Vista Home Premium to either Vista Business or Vista Ultimate — thereby forcing the consumer to incur an unnecessary expense of $130, perhaps more or less, depending on the retail outlet, and creating revenue for Microsoft in the same amount.
This point is backed up by Dell, which defended its decision to charge $150 to downgrade customers from Vista to XP by blaming Microsoft. Dell was only charging $20 for the installation but having to pass on the $130 needed to upgrade Vista from Home Premium to Business to the customer as well.
In addition to seeking compensatory damages, Alvarado wants the case to be classified as a class-action suit. If this does happen and the court decides there is a case to be answered, then Microsoft could have a nasty Vista-shaped bump on their way to releasing Windows 7.
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