Asia In Brief Australia’s Competition & Consumer Commission on Monday commenced legal proceedings against Microsoft for allegedly misleading users of its Microsoft 365 bundle.
The consumer protection agency alleges that Redmond’s advice to users of Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans with auto-renewal was that “to maintain their subscription they must accept the integration of Copilot and pay higher prices for their plan, or, alternatively, cancel their subscription.”
“The ACCC alleges this information provided to subscribers was false or misleading because there was an undisclosed third option, the Microsoft 365 Personal or Family Classic plans, which allowed subscribers to retain the features of their existing plan, without Copilot, at the previous lower price.”
In January 2025, The Register reported Redmond’s plan to increase the price of M365 to reflect the inclusion of Copilot, and Microsoft told us a “Classic” plan was its alternative. We could find no details for the Classic plan online at the time.
“Following a detailed investigation, we will allege in Court that Microsoft deliberately omitted reference to the Classic plans in its communications and concealed their existence until after subscribers initiated the cancellation process to increase the number of consumers on more expensive Copilot-integrated plans,” ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said.
“We’re concerned that Microsoft’s communications denied its customers the opportunity to make informed decisions about their subscription options, which included the possibility of retaining all the features of their existing plan without Copilot and at the lower price,” she added.
The Register has sought comment from Microsoft but had not received a response at the time of publication.
The company later sent us the following statement.
While we’re in Australia, the nation’s federal government on Monday announced it would not create an exemption in local copyright law that would allow AI companies to scrape content for free to use for training their models. Attorney general Michelle Rowland said Australian creators deserve copyright protection.
India to require labelling of AI-generated content
India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology last week proposed laws [PDF] requiring social media companies and other online publishers to detect and label AI-generated content.
The proposed laws require AI-generated content to include a label with a “permanent unique metadata or identifier” that is “visibly displayed or made audible in a prominent manner on or within the synthetic content, covering at least 10% of the surface area of a visual display or, in the case of audio content, during the initial 10% of its duration.”
The rules also require content creators to identify material generated by AI when they upload it.
India’s government wants the new rules because it fears deepfakes “can be weaponised to spread misinformation, damage reputations, manipulate or influence elections, or commit financial fraud.”
China restates tech independence goal
China’s Communist Party last week signed off on its 15th five-year plan, which includes renewed calls for the nation to become self-sufficient in digital technology.
The full text of the plan won’t appear until next year, but state media report that it calls for China to develop more of the technology it uses.
“The private sector is expected to play a pivotal role in technological advancement,” reads a China Daily report on the plan. “Accordingly, the 15th Five-Year Plan will promote the application of new technologies across industries, creating new growth engines. The ‘AI+’ approach, integrating AI into a wide array of industries, reflects China’s goal of transitioning from ‘Made in China’ to ‘Created in China’.”
However, analysts at financial services company ING noted that the 14th five-year plan placed tech self-sufficiency one place higher on Beijing’s list of priorities and said the new plan “did not offer too much new content for markets to digest, mostly reiterating existing talking points.”
New Zealand’s body for IT pros votes itself out of existence
New Zealand’s Institute of IT Professionals has voted itself out of existence after members agreed it could not continue to trade profitably.
In early October, the organization advised members it was insolvent. It later told members it was “carrying debts that, on paper, made us look solvent. In reality, many of those debts were not being paid and over time became unrecoverable.”
The org also lost its contract to certify the skills of IT professionals, and with it a major source of revenue.
A Special General Meeting held last Thursday 23 saw members vote 94 to 8 in favor of entering liquidation. The organization is now winding up its affairs, and seeking volunteers to help find another entity to continue its work. NZTech, the Tech Users Association of New Zealand, and Engineering NZ have already proposed to continue the organization’s mission.
Alibaba Cloud quits VMware
Alibaba Cloud has quietly stopped offering VMware-as-a-service. China’s top cloud used to offer the Alibaba Cloud VMware Service, and promoted it as providing “the powerful features of VMware products including vSphere, NSX, and vSAN.”
However, the product is no longer listed on Alibaba Cloud’s service catalog.
The Register understands Alibaba Cloud feels VMware’s owner Broadcom has a new strategy for China and believes Alibaba isn’t part of it. Broadcom told The Register the service “was wound down last year for a variety of business priority and technology reasons.” ®
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