Italy's antitrust watchdog accused Microsoft of burying the price of AI features inside Microsoft 365 subscriptions, auto-enrolling customers into costlier plans without telling them what they were paying for. The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) opened an investigation Friday into Microsoft Ireland Operations and Microsoft Italy over what it called a potentially unfair commercial practice linked to recent Microsoft 365 subscription changes.
The regulator's concern is not that Microsoft added Copilot and Designer to the productivity suite. It is that the company failed to clearly communicate those additions or the resulting price increases, according to the AGCM's statement.
Subscribers were automatically moved to more expensive plans and had to actively opt out if they did not want to pay the higher rate. The AGCM said the changes were communicated in a fragmented way that did not spell out exactly what customers were getting for the extra money.
"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 watchdog said. The AGCM added that the communication method "may also constitute an aggressive practice, as it appears to have unduly restricted consumers' freedom of choice." A Microsoft spokesperson said the company "is committed to complying with Italian consumer law and will cooperate with the Italian Competition Authority in its preliminary investigation."
The Italian probe arrives weeks after the UK's Competition and Markets Authority launched a strategic market status investigation into Microsoft's wider business software ecosystem. That inquiry is focused on bundling, licensing practices, and defaults as AI becomes embedded across workplace software.
Italy's case is narrower. The AGCM is examining whether customers knew what they were signing up for, not whether Microsoft holds excessive market power. The distinction matters: the probe targets consumer transparency rather than antitrust dominance, and the outcome could set a precedent for how software companies communicate AI-driven price changes across Europe.
