"From SA is a maintenance program for biz customers, purchased with volume licenses. It provides upgrades without extra cost, license mobility, training vouchers and more. The scheme was launched in 2014, giving customers a way to shift perpetual licenses with Software Assurance to Microsoft's cloud services. It involved a discount and represented a bridge to the company's Microsoft 365 model."
"It also required that the "customer retains the corresponding Qualifying Licenses throughout its From SA license subscription period" (from the company's February 2021 Product Terms [DOCX file]), prohibiting resale of the old perpetual licenses. It sounds rather familiar when considering the core of the ValueLicensing allegations: that Microsoft deliberately choked off the supply of perpetual licenses to the secondhand market by persuading customers not to resell their licenses in return for favorable Microsoft 365 rates."
Microsoft's From SA program provided maintenance benefits to business customers who bought volume licenses, including upgrades, license mobility, training vouchers and virtualization rights. The program launched in 2014 to allow customers to shift perpetual Software Assurance licenses to Microsoft's cloud with a discount and ease transition to Microsoft 365. The program's terms required customers to retain qualifying perpetual licenses throughout the From SA subscription, effectively prohibiting resale of those licenses. ValueLicensing alleges the program intentionally suppressed the secondhand market by discouraging resale in exchange for favorable Microsoft 365 rates. The From SA program ended in 2024, and the claimants seek further disclosure in proceedings before the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal.
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