CoPilot pricing Microsoft – Microsoft is facing a lawsuit in Australia for allegedly misleading its Microsoft 365 customers in the country. A lawsuit has been filed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) against the Windows maker for allegedly failing to inform customers about cheaper alternatives when increasing the price of subscription plans after integrating Copilot with the service. The Redmond-based tech giant announced price hikes in the country on October 31, 2024, informing customers to either pay the higher prices or cancel their subscriptions.

In a press release, the ACCC announced that it had commenced proceedings in the Federal Court against Microsoft Australia and its parent company, Microsoft Corp. The essence of the lawsuit is an increase in the price of Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans.

After integrating its AI chatbot with the service, now called Microsoft 365 Copilot, the company has increased the price of the Personal plan by 45 percent to AUD 159 (roughly Rs. 9,200) from AUD 109 (roughly Rs. 6,300).

The price of the Family plan was also increased by 29 percent to AUD 179 (approximately Rs 10,300). The main allegation against the company is that existing customers, estimated to be 2.

7 million in the country, were informed through two emails and a blog post, asking them to either accept higher prices or cancel their subscriptions. This is being said to be misleading, as the tech giant did not inform them about the third option, which was to retain the subscription at the same price without any AI features.

ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said, “We allege that two Microsoft emails and blog posts to existing customers were false or misleading because they suggested consumers would have to accept more expensive CoPilot-integrated plans, and the only other option was to cancel. ” The ACCC highlighted that the maximum fine that can be imposed on a company for each breach of Australian consumer law is the greater of AUD 50 million (about Rs 289 crore), which is three times the gross profit earned by the company that was properly attributed, or 30 per cent of its adjusted turnover during the period of the breach.