Batu69 Posted September 7, 2016 Share Posted September 7, 2016 CJEU rejects French citizen's complaint, claims consumers want pre-loaded software. The sale of a computer equipped with pre-installed software isn't an unfair commercial practice because most customers prefer to buy a laptop they can use straight away, Europe’s top court has ruled in a victory for Sony. "Failure to indicate the price of each item of pre-installed software" isn't misleading, the Court of Justice of the European Union added in its ruling (PDF) on Wednesday. The CJEU was asked to intervene after French citizen Vincent Deroo-Blanquart took Sony to court for failing to reimburse the cost of pre-installed software—Windows Vista Home Premium operating system—that he did not wish to use on a laptop. Sony refused and instead offered to cancel the sale altogether. Deroo-Blanquart sued on the basis of a 2005 EU directive on unfair business-to-consumer commercial conduct that prohibits practices that "distort the economic behaviour of consumers." He argued there was no option to purchase the same model of computer without the pre-installed software, nor was the price of each item of software indicated. In its judgment, the court threw out those gripes. The CJEU said: Quote The sale of such equipped computers can satisfy the requirements of professional diligence, taking account of the fact that the sale by Sony of computers with pre-installed software meets the expectations of a significant proportion of consumers who prefer to purchase a computer already equipped and ready for immediate use, rather than to purchase a computer and software separately. It also took the view that the failure to indicate the price of each item of software is not such as to prevent the consumer from making an informed transactional decision. However, the CJEU doesn't rule on the dispute itself. It's left up to the national court, in this case the French Cour de Cassation. It's worth noting that the ruling could be bad news for free software, which is rarely offered on new machines. If Europe's highest court had gone the other way, then open source might have been more widely offered and used. Article source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiliarou Posted September 8, 2016 Share Posted September 8, 2016 This is a scandal. Why the hell would you allow this monopoly to happen ?? European laws are against all sort of monopoly whatsoever, this decision is highly surprising and stupid. " a significant proportion of consumers who prefer to purchase a computer already equipped " WTF ?? First of all "a significant" doesn't mean anything ! Why can they put a figure on this ? And addmiting that the proportion is significant, it doesn't mean ALL the consumer prefers to have preinstalled system with a lack of real choice... This decision has to be void ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jogs Posted September 8, 2016 Share Posted September 8, 2016 Okay even if siginificant number of customers like to buy a device with preinstalled software doesn't mean that there is nobody who wants to buy without any. There should always be an option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pc71520 Posted September 8, 2016 Share Posted September 8, 2016 On 7/9/2016 at 4:52 PM, Batu69 said: Europe’s top court has ruled in a victory for Sony. As we say, Corporatocracy won... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luisam Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 A decision against preinstalled Windows should have been a blow against Microsoft. If a user could get a 100% functional computer with a free OS and all the most common open code software he needs for everyday use, most probably he never might be interested to PAY for Windows. I would presume that the computer manufacturer should provide all the software you need to start working "out of the box" Should computers be sold without any software, the problem with installing a free OS, let's say, some Linux distro, is that it's not enough to start running the system; you must have available ALL the drivers for YOUR computer, like LAN, USB 3.0, Blu-Ray, audio, video and of course controllers and drivers for all those common peripherics like printers, scanners, smartphones, audio players etc. Some of the fundamental drivers might not be on the instalation disk of that particular Linux version. Maybe it might not even be available. Some Linux enthusiastics might reply me that this is not true but let me reserve my opionion about this issue. This is probably one of the reasons that about 97% of computer users keeps using their new computer with original Windows or OSX and they have no reason to be happy and eager about changing to the "free" option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnakeMasteR Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 Sony sold Vaio in 2014, due to low sales. Would explain why that is. ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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