microsoft licensing

Microsoft is heading into a fresh confrontation with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, which is preparing to launch a strategic market status investigation into the company’s business software ecosystem from May. The probe will widen scrutiny beyond cloud infrastructure and into the...

Microsoft is facing one of the most consequential regulatory challenges yet to its cloud business, as the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority moves from broad market scrutiny into a more formal probe of cloud software licensing practices. The issue goes far beyond a single pricing dispute: it...

Microsoft’s cloud licensing strategy is heading back into the regulatory spotlight in the UK, and this time the stakes are higher than a conventional market study. The Competition and Markets Authority is now considering whether to give Microsoft strategic market status, a designation that would...

Microsoft’s cloud business is heading into another regulatory test in the UK, and this one is more surgical than the CMA’s broad cloud market investigation that closed in July 2025. The watchdog has now moved toward a separate strategic market status probe focused on Microsoft’s business...

Microsoft’s business software empire is under fresh scrutiny in the UK, and this time the Competition and Markets Authority is looking beyond cloud infrastructure into the broader productivity stack that underpins day-to-day work for millions of organisations. The regulator says it will launch a...

The long-running feud between John Donovan and Shell plc has re‑entered a modern, high‑stakes phase: an AI‑amplified “bot war” that has prompted renewed legal posturing from Shell, intensified public debate over corporate brand protection tactics, and raised new questions about how multinational...

A federal jury and a U.S. district court have put a hard legal cap on a years‑long, low‑tech but high‑value operation that turned genuine Microsoft "Genuine" stickers into a multiyear, multimillion‑dollar resale business: Heidi Richards, 52, the operator of Trinity Software Distribution in...

Wiresoft’s announcement that it is moving into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia marks a bold push by a European secondary-market software retailer into one of the Middle East’s fastest-growing IT markets, but the headlines hide important legal, technical, and procurement subtleties that every Saudi...

Japan’s competition enforcers have executed an on-site inspection of Microsoft’s Japanese offices after local media and international reporting said the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) is investigating whether Microsoft improperly limited customers’ ability to run Microsoft software on rival...

Flexera One is now being shown as a single-pane solution that takes raw discovery data, applies Microsoft product-use-rights logic, and produces actionable entitlements and optimization recommendations for Windows Server and SQL Server—reducing both audit risk and cloud spend while exposing the...

Microsoft’s formal end-of-support for Windows 10 has turned what was already a long-running upgrade debate into a moment of real urgency — and a flurry of steep Windows 11 Pro discounts and third‑party “lifetime” license offers has followed, pitching sub‑$10 keys as a low‑cost bulletproofing...

Microsoft appears to have quietly removed the long-standing option to activate Windows by telephone, effectively ending a decades-old offline activation path for Windows 10 and Windows 11 and accelerating a shift that reduces offline activation choices to cloud‑dependent workflows. The change —...

Microsoft licensing still feels like alphabet soup, but there are five simple truths every IT leader should lock into the budget and the migration plan: Software Assurance (SA) is more than an insurance policy — it’s the gatekeeper to upgrade rights, license mobility, BYOL for cloud, and...

A time-limited Black Friday promotion aimed at Spanish buyers is again shining a spotlight on third‑party key marketplaces: GvGMall is advertising steep discounts on Windows and Office OEM keys — including a Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 key promoted at €11.60 when the checkout coupon GVGMM is...

The UK Competition Appeal Tribunal has delivered a unanimous preliminary ruling that Microsoft cannot use its contract terms and copyright arguments to stop customers reselling perpetual Windows and Office licences — a major win for reseller ValueLicensing and a decision that reinforces the...

In a fast-moving episode that reshapes the European cloud competition narrative, the Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE) — through its European Cloud Competition Observatory (ECCO) — has signalled a turning point: Microsoft has been moved out of the amber category after...

A high‑stakes, potentially precedent‑setting legal push against Microsoft over its cloud licensing policies is gathering momentum in the UK: competition lawyer Dr Maria Luisa Stasi is pressing a proposed collective claim worth roughly £2 billion that alleges thousands of UK organisations were...

It’s a sign of the times when enterprise software purchasing — long one of the duller back-office disciplines — becomes a project for generative AI: Onyx, a newly minted startup founded by industry veterans, has built an expert‑backed LLM service that answers Microsoft licensing questions and...

Windows Server 2022 Datacenter’s promise of “unlimited virtualization” is not marketing hyperbole — when properly licensed and activated with a Datacenter product key, the edition gives organisations the legal right to run an unlimited number of Windows Server virtual machines (VMs) on a...

Windows-stack websites still matter: in 2025 the best cheap Windows hosting providers combine modern Windows Server support, affordable Windows VPS/shared plans, and clear licensing options — but the trade-offs between cost, control, and compliance are more visible than ever. Background Windows...