3 ms·

They can, and nobody in the EU will care. Unless they somehow convince OEMs to require acceptance of the Windows EULA prior to purchase of a device with Windows

They can, and nobody in the EU will care. Unless they somehow convince OEMs to require acceptance of the Windows EULA prior to purchase of a device with Windows preinstalled(and even then they'll need to provide it in understandable terms to the layman), then the EULA doesn't mean anything. Microsoft has had that issue for decades where they're in violation of consumer rights. You're not allowed to require acceptance of additional terms after the transaction has occurred.

drdaeman 3y ago
> Unless they somehow convince OEMs Wait, do they have a different laws about shrink-wrapped licenses in EU? I thought this particular aspect was pretty much universal everywhere, with very minor deviations. My understanding is that you buy a computer with Windows pre-installed, it requires to accept an EULA on the first boot, you either do it, or you can install a different OS (and theoretically ask for a refund, although this is where jurisdictions and realities start to really differ and I don't know about EU). OEMs only put some bits on the device (drive and firmware), but to best of my awareness license acceptance always happen after the sale and is between the user and Microsoft. If EU had tackled this somehow, please let me know (and forgive my lack of awareness). > You're not allowed to require acceptance of additional terms after the transaction has occurred. Surely they can with a new version? Apple does it this way (e.g. just recently watchOS 10.1 came with new EULA, requiring acceptance before an update can be installed) worldwide and I haven't heard of any government having issues with it. In Microsoft's best new traditions they can pester users to upgrade and even make it super Microsoft-friendly, with forced automatic upgrades that spend 30 minutes applying patches, then showing an EULA, then rolling back for another 30 minutes after it's declined.

drdaeman 3y ago

> Unless they somehow convince OEMs Wait, do they have a different laws about shrink-wrapped licenses in EU? I thought this particular aspect was pretty much universal everywhere, with very minor deviations. My understanding is that you buy a computer with Windows pre-installed, it requires to accept an EULA on the first boot, you either do it, or you can install a different OS (and theoretically ask for a refund, although this is where jurisdictions and realities start to really differ and I don't know about EU). OEMs only put some bits on the device (drive and firmware), but to best of my awareness license acceptance always happen after the sale and is between the user and Microsoft. If EU had tackled this somehow, please let me know (and forgive my lack of awareness). > You're not allowed to require acceptance of additional terms after the transaction has occurred. Surely they can with a new version? Apple does it this way (e.g. just recently watchOS 10.1 came with new EULA, requiring acceptance before an update can be installed) worldwide and I haven't heard of any government having issues with it. In Microsoft's best new traditions they can pester users to upgrade and even make it super Microsoft-friendly, with forced automatic upgrades that spend 30 minutes applying patches, then showing an EULA, then rolling back for another 30 minutes after it's declined.