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Microsoft’s challenge over copyright matters in a claim brought against it byValueLicensing over alleged unlawful practices concerning the bulk resale of the tech giant’ssoftware licenses has been dismissed by appeal judges. At the end of last year, Microsoftfailed to persuade the UK’s specialized competition court that ValueLicensing breachedcopyright rules through its resale of licenses.

Microsoft has lost its appeal over copyright matters in an antitrust claim over software licensereselling brought against it by ValueLicensing. At the UK Court of Appeal, Microsoftchallenged findings from the Competition Appeal Tribunal that said ValueLicensing didn’tbreach copyright rules through its resale of licenses.

The Court of Appeal has upheld two rulings of the Competition Appeal Tribunal in favour of JJH Enterprises Limited, trading as ValueLicensing, dismissing Microsoft's challenge to both the tribunal's jurisdiction and its findings on copyright exhaustion. The judgement, handed down on 7 July 2026, clears the way for ValueLicensing's substantial damages claim to proceed.

"The UK's Court of Appeal has dismissed Microsoft's appeal against a ruling that ValueLicensing (VL) can resell pre-owned software licences. The judgment, handed down July 7, follows a ruling by the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) in November that customers could resell their licenses, even if Office contained clipart. The judgment is unambiguous on both counts. On copyright, the Court of Appeal agreed with the CAT that Microsoft's reasoning would lead to "odd results." "It would mean that all that was necessary to avoid the effect of UsedSoft would be to incorporate some icons or clip art with the program," the judgment noted."

JJH Enterprises Limited, trading as ValueLicensing, today welcomes the unanimous judgment of the Court of Appeal dismissing Microsoft's appeals in full. The Court dismissed both Microsoft's jurisdiction appeal (CA-2025-001656) and its appeal against the Competition Appeal Tribunal's determination of the preliminary copyright issues (CA-2025-003082). The judgment confirms that the Competition Appeal Tribunal has jurisdiction to determine copyright issues where they arise as necessary questions in competition law claims. It also upholds the Tribunal's application of the landmark UsedSoft decision, confirming that Microsoft's software products are capable of benefiting from the doctrine of exhaustion and that qualifying volume licences may be subdivided and resold. The Court rejected Microsoft's argument that its licensing arrangements create an indivisible block licence and confirmed that Microsoft's contractual licence terms cannot override the doctrine of exhaustion, which operates as a matter of law. The Court also dismissed Microsoft's remaining grounds of appeal, including arguments concerning sample transactions, contractual transfer mechanisms and the burden of proof. The judgment clears the way for ValueLicensing's abuse of dominance claim to proceed before the Competition Appeal Tribunal and is expected to be of considerable significance for the proposed opt-out collective proceedings brought by Alexander Wolfson and the separate proceedings in Discount-Licensing Limited and another v Microsoft Corporation and others.