The Bottom Line
Microsoft didn’t set out to upset regulators — it just assumed everyone wanted AI.
When Copilot started its quiet infiltration of Microsoft 365, the company quietly re-tiered subscriptions and moved customers onto more expensive plans — no dialog box, no clear change notice. Italy’s Competition Authority (AGCM) says that move was a violation: automatic upgrade + incomplete disclosure = deceptive commercial practice. This isn’t about AI being dangerous; it’s about whether users truly understood what they were signing up for, and whether the default setting left any real choice on the table. The AGCM is now demanding Microsoft own up and fix how it rolls out upgrades.
The Automatic Shift Nobody Asked For
Here’s what happened: Microsoft slipped Copilot and Designer into a raft of its productivity apps, then quietly shifted millions of subscribers to pricier 365 tiers. Unless you acted — and you had to know to act — you paid more.
The Italian regulator doesn’t dispute that Copilot is a useful feature. What it disputes is the how. According to AGCM’s preliminary finding, Microsoft communicated the upgrade in a fragmented way: a patch note here, an email digest there, maybe a pop-up buried under “What’s New.” The result? Subscribers were effectively auto-enrolled into higher pricing without clear, upfront notice.
"In the Authority’s view, this conduct may be contrary to consumer rules, since Microsoft appears to have failed to provide consumers with sufficient information to assess the changes made to the service offered and, as a consequence, make an informed decision as to whether or not to renew their subscription," the agency wrote.
That line — “insufficient information” and “unduly restricted freedom of choice” — is regulatory boilerplate for aggressive tactics. The AGCM isn’t yet saying Microsoft broke the law; it’s saying the evidence so far points to a practice that doesn’t meet the standard for “informed consent.”
Microsoft’s “We’ll Cooperate” Moment
Microsoft didn’t double down on the rollout. In a brief statement to The Register, the company confirmed it was committed to complying with Italian consumer law and would “cooperate with the Italian Competition Authority in its preliminary investigation.”
That’s the standard response, but it’s also significant. A “ooperation” stance tells you Microsoft knows this isn’t a fight it can win in court without admitting something uncomfortable — for instance, that its default behavior was less about choice and more about conversion.
The company has spent the past year weaving Copilot into nearly every surface of its portfolio — Office, Windows, GitHub, even Teams. Pricing followed closely behind: per-user fees ticked upward as Copilot became a subscription-grade capability rather than an add-on. In some markets, the shift happened quietly. Italy is saying: no more quiet.
London’s Bigger Play Is Still Unfolding
It’d be easy to treat Italy as an outlier — a single nation’s regulator flagging sloppy upselling. But this case drops just weeks after the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched a strategic market status probe into Microsoft’s business software ecosystem.
The UK inquiry is broader and sharper: it’s about market power, interoperability, default settings in AI products, and whether bundling really serves competition or just entrenches incumbency. The AGCM investigation is narrower but no less serious: did Microsoft hide the price jump and make opting out feel like a penalty rather than an option?
Regulators across Europe are watching, and they’re not alone. The EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) already targets “gatekeepers” and their bundling behaviors. Italy isn’t pioneering a new theory of harm — it’s applying the existing playbook with fresh urgency.
What This Means for Your License
If you’re an individual user or a small business, the most immediate impact will be in renewal notices. When the AGCM wraps its preliminary phase, it could demand Microsoft recalibrate how it presents upgrade paths: clearer cost deltas, opt-in checkboxes (instead of pre-checked boxes), or even a holdout period before any plan change takes effect.
Big enterprises with procurement teams may already have negotiated exceptions, but for the rest of us, this is about transparency as a feature — not an afterthought. If your subscription cost changes because Copilot got smarter, you deserve to know why and how much before the payment hits.
Regulators are starting to treat AI upgrades like any other product change: something that should be agreed upon, not silently imposed.
Bottom Line Again
Copilot isn’t going away. But the days of “you’ll like it, and you’re paying for it” may be numbered — at least in Europe. Italy is asking: if the upgrade isn’t optional, is it an upgrade at all? Or just a tax in disguise?
Microsoft has one chance to get this right: make the next change visible, explainable, and reversible. Because if AI features come with a hidden price tag, regulators will keep opening the box to find the receipt.
Carly Page wrote this for The Register on Friday, 26 June 2026. SpendLens republished it with deeper regulatory context and direct sourcing from the Italian Competition Authority's preliminary findings.
