An Italian judge ruled in favour of a Hewlett Packard (HP) customer who asked for a refund because the Compaq notebook he had bought came pre-loaded with Microsoft's Windows XP and Works 8.

The customer complained to HP that he had no choice but to buy the laptop with the software giant's omnipresent operating system and application pre-installed.

The computer maker initially refused to budge so the customer took the firm to court earlier this year.

According to records just made public, the court found that HP had failed to adhere to its end user licence agreement (https://h20392.www2.hp.com/portal/swdepot/displayPage.do?type=content&productNumber=GN036AA&contentType=terms) (EULA), which states that: "If you do not accept these license terms, your sole remedy is to return the entire unused product (hardware and software) within 14 days for a refund."

According to Italian paper (http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corriere.it%2Fscienze_e_tecnologie%2F07_ottobre_25%2Fwindow.shtml&langpair=it%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8) Corriere Della Sera, HP was ordered to refund the customer €90 for XP and €50 for Works.

Just last month in France a similar ruling led to computer manufacturer Acer having to cough up €811 in damages to Antoine Gutzwiller over a €599 laptop because of a dispute over pre-loaded software.

The full court ruling can be viewed here (http://www.aduc.it/dyn/documenti/allegati/sentenza_hp.pdf) (Italian pdf). ®

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