So some dude spent four years fighting a legal battle to save the cost of an unwanted Windows license.
But perhaps this means that, at least in France, OEMs may have to now give the option to desktop/laptop buyers to not charge for unwanted Windows licenses.  Wouldn't mind if this could be the case here.

Quote:Lenovo ordered to pay €1920 for making French laptop buyer pay for Windows too
The court based its judgment on a European Union directive, which campaigners hope will make the ruling applicable elsewhere

A French laptop buyer has won a refund from Lenovo after a four-year legal battle over the cost of a Windows license he didn't want. The judgment could open the way for PC buyers elsewhere in Europe to obtain refunds for bundled software they don't want, French campaign group No More Racketware said Monday.

Stéphane Petrus bought a Lenovo 3000 N200 laptop from French retailer Cybertek in December 2007. The PC had Microsoft Windows Vista and other software installed on it, none of which Petrus wanted, so he sought a refund from Lenovo under a French law forbidding the sale of one product to be tied to the sale of another. In November 2008, the court rejected his request, telling him that if he didn't want to pay for the copy of Windows, he should have returned the PC.

The judgment was overturned by the Court of Cassation two years later on appeal, and sent back to the court in Aix en Provence for retrial, on the grounds that the lower court had not considered whether the case was covered by the provisions of the 2005 European Union directive on unfair commercial practices.

After reconsidering the case, on Jan. 9, Judge Jean-Marie Dubouloz ordered Lenovo to pay Petrus legal costs of €1,000 (around US$1,300), damages of €800 and to refund the cost of the Windows license. Petrus had estimated the cost of the software at €404.81, but the court found that excessive, given that he had paid €597 for the PC and software together. Observing that "it is commonly accepted that the price of a piece of software represents 10 percent to 25 percent of the price of a computer," the court ordered Lenovo to reimburse Petrus €120 for the software.

Source: http://www.techworld.com.au/article/4145...indows_too

(This post was last modified: 07/02/2012 08:32 PM by ZiNgA BuRgA.)