The Italian antitrust authority has opened an investigation against Microsoft for increasing the cost of Microsoft 365 subscriptions without clearly informing users. The company integrated artificial intelligence services such as Copilot and Designer, and established a new, more expensive plan as the default option. This forces customers to manually cancel if they do not wish to pay for unrequested features, potentially generating unexpected additional charges.
How AI Integration Modifies Subscription Plans Without Permission 🤖
Microsoft activated Copilot and Designer as part of the Microsoft 365 base plan, raising the price without explicit notification. Technically, the company changed the default subscription settings, redirecting users to a higher tier. To avoid the increase, the customer must access their account settings, locate the plan option, and manually cancel the subscription or switch to a previous plan that is no longer displayed as a visible option. This process is not intuitive.
Paying for a Robot You Didn't Ask For, the New Standard at Home 💸
Now it turns out that if you have Microsoft 365, you might be funding a virtual assistant you neither requested nor needed. It's like going to a bar, ordering a coffee, and the waiter serving you a coffee with a cleaning robot included, billing you for it without asking. The solution is simple: check your subscription before the AI charges you for writing emails you know how to draft yourself.