[Ecommerce] UFC-Que Choisir (French consumer group) wins: Judge orders PC chain Darty to display price of operating system

[Manon Ress]

April  Press Release on order:

http://www.april.org/articles/communiques/pr-20080625.html.en

April is pleased by the conviction of the Darty chain of electronics
stores for not complying with French consumer protection regulations.
This conviction is a major milestone for consumers, and also for
competition in the market of software for the general public. The next
step ought to be the display of the terms of use for the various
software packages installed on new computers, and making installation
optional.

As a result of it being sued by the French consumer-defence
association UFC-Que Choisir, the Darty chain of stores was found
guilty on June 24th 2008 by the Court of Serious Claims [Tribunal de
Grande Instance] of Paris and is required to display the price of the
software installed on computers for sale, mainly Microsoft Windows and
Microsoft Office.

This good news regarding the problem of software being bundled with
computers is particularly welcome as it comes only a few days before a
conciliation meeting organised by the French "Competition, Consumption
& Fraud Repression" regulator, the DGCCRF.

"The display of the prices is part of a seller's obligations. Yet when
it comes to computers, we are never told the price of the software.
Most consumers tend to think that the Microsoft Windows operating
system they are forced to buy with every new computer is free. In
fact, the cheapest version of it costs a hundred euros! This judgement
is therefore an important milestone towards the display of the terms
of use for the various software installed on new computers; the final
step being making such installation optional, which would allow
consumers to purchase only the elements they wish to buy", stated
Fr=E9d=E9ric Couchet, April's general delegate.

"This is a historic decision, that happens to be unveiled only a few
days before the conciliation meeting organised on July 3rd by the
French "Competition, Consumption & Fraud Repression" regulator DGCCRF
on the topic of software bundling. Providing information for the
public on the price of each element of a computer, both hardware and
software, is a crucial point in our approach. With this judgment, we
hope that the conciliation meeting will adopt our proposals, namely
guaranteeing information for consumers and the optionnality of the
installation of software", declared J=E9r=E9my Monnet, one of April's
administrators.

Alix Cazenave, April's public affairs manager, added that "by making
compulsory a detailed display of the prices, the judges acknowledged a
problem of bundled selling. It's a huge step as far as consumers are
concerned. It is also a major improvement for competition in the
market of software for the general public. This decision should also
prompt the French Secretary of State for Consumer affairs and
Industry, Luc Chatel, to reconsider his recent statements regarding
the matter and come back to his previous views as a member of
parliament [1]."

The solutions advocated both by April and AFUL through the working
group "Racketeering-ware" (Racketiciels) are very simple, quite common
and they respect the business model of the vendors. These associations
invite all vendors to make use of either:

     * pre-installed software in evaluation mode, so that the consumer
has only to pay for the software after buying the computer and only
for the elements of software that he wishes to keep; or
     * activation codes for the pre-installed software, so that the
buyer can choose easily which software he wishes to buy while buying a
computer. In that case, the activation codes would be provided in an
envelope separated from the computer itself, thus making it easy for
the seller to provide only the codes for the elements of software
which the buyer wishes to purchase.

More inks:

  =AB Bundled selling of software with computers: a first step
towards ending this problem for consumers =BB :

http://www.april.org/articles/communiques/pr-20080625.html.en

=AB Vente li=E9e ordinateurs/logiciels: un premier pas vers le respect des
consommateurs =BB :

http://www.april.org/articles/communiques/pr-20080625.html

=AB News Item FR: Judge orders PC chain to display price of operating
system =BB :

http://osor.eu/news/fr-judge-orders-pc-chain-to-display-price-of-operating-=
system


***************************************************************************
Manon Ress
manon.ress@keionline.org,

1621 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20009 USA
Tel.:  +1.202.332.2670, Fax: +1.202.332.2673