Ruling against Microsoft: Cancellation must be easy

The subject of the proceedings against Microsoft (Ref. 3 HK O 13796/24, Regional Court München I) was information on Microsoft’s website intended to inform consumers about how and under what conditions they could cancel their current Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Although Microsoft provided a cancellation button, this did not lead directly to cancellation as required by law, but instead made the process more difficult by requiring various data to be entered. Microsoft also required users to log in to their Microsoft customer account in order to cancel. The problem was that anyone who no longer had their original email address could not log in.

In doing so, Microsoft violated a law that is intended to make it easy for consumers to cancel subscriptions in two steps using a cancellation button.

“Consumers must be able to cancel their online subscriptions just as easily as they signed up for them,” explains Oliver Buttler, head of the telecommunications, internet, and consumer law department at the Baden-Württemberg Consumer Advice Center. “The court has made it clear that companies are not allowed to make cancellations difficult by providing unclear information or unnecessarily complicated processes.”

Microsoft had to bear the plaintiff’s legal costs, as well as costs related to the late termination of the subscription.