ValueLicensing sued Microsoft for £270m. A court refused Microsoft's bid to appeal.
The UK Court of Appeal refused Microsoft permission to take its dispute with ValueLicensing to the Supreme Court, The Register reported on 19 October.
ValueLicensing resells used software licences. The court gave no reasons: "It is ordered that the application is refused."
ValueLicensing sued in 2021 for £270 million, claiming Microsoft choked off the supply of surplus Office licences. That figure is a claim, not an award. Microsoft denied any wrongdoing and declined to comment on the refusal.
Microsoft can still apply to the Supreme Court directly, within 28 days of the refusal. A court order also demands a 2013 internal deck, "Second-Hand Software Presentation", which the order calls a "Known Adverse Document". Its contents are unknown.
A separate proposed class action for UK customers seeks between £1.3 billion and £3.5 billion over Microsoft's conduct on pre-owned licences.
For people who manage software licences, the November 2025 ruling stays in effect for now. It allows ValueLicensing to resell used licences.
Sources
Our file on Microsoft
- 19 Oct
Microsoft quit Nscale's UK data centre. Power may not arrive until the 2030s.
- 17 Oct
Microsoft's software has about 20 million UK users. Britain's watchdog proposed a special status.
- 14 Oct
Home Office AI summarised asylum interviews. 45 of 203 checked summaries failed.
- 13 Oct
Microsoft's change broke the Exchange admin console. SharePoint failed that way in September.
- 13 Oct
Microsoft promised $100m for its Africa engineering centre. Staff say Nairobi's is closing.
For your next steering committee
- 1Ask which exit clauses your largest software and services contracts carry, and when each can be used.
- 2Ask what leaving would cost, in money and in months.
- 3Ask who reads the contract when a dispute starts, and whether they have read it before.
Issue 01 of the ERP LEADERS brief puts a timeline, the three-number review and six questions on one page. Read issue 01
Welcome back. · Issue 01
