The UK government has forced Xbox into changing its automatic gaming service renewal practices following an official investigation conducted by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). According to CMA's official statement, Microsoft will now need to change how it handles service auto-renewal across the board, with its Xbox Live and Game Pass services being affected.
The statement from the CMA was posted on the official UK government website, citing a list of Xbox subscription service issues that the investigation discovered weren't up to par with the UK government's regulations. Microsoft didn't wait long to take action, however, and CMA confirmed that the company would be voluntarily making changes to its services in light of these investigations.
Specifically, the list of issues relates mainly to information availability and membership management. Microsoft will now need to provide access to better informative content about its subscription services, as well as about the timing and manner of auto-renewal handling. CMA has requested that Xbox services offer improved upfront information on when, exactly, services auto-renew, and plainly explain how auto-renewal can be disabled in the appropriate menu, which could prove particularly handy if someone's favorite games are getting removed from Game Pass, for example.
Microsoft will now also need to contact users on a more regular basis, which may extend to the (currently) UK-exclusive Microsoft Rewards service. Recurring users with long subscription contracts will, for example, now be given the option to end their subscription with a pro-rata refund provided by default, with a similar support package provided to inactive users. Another request made by the CMA was for Microsoft to inform users about future service pricing increases well in advance, along with an option to immediately cancel auto-renewal, should the user wish to do so.
CMA's investigation may have been prompted by Microsoft's success with Xbox and its subscription services. Xbox Game Pass recently hit 25 million subscribers, a significant number of whom are bound to reside in the UK. According to Michael Grenfell, the Executive Director of Enforcement at the CMA, Microsoft was quick to agree with the organization's assessment and went on to praise its timely response.
With these potentially major changes coming to all Microsoft subscription services in the UK, the only question that remains is whether the company would extend these user-friendly content and option revamps to other territories, as well. It's not a big stretch to imagine that it would, since Xbox and Microsoft are on a user-friendly streak with Game Pass fixes and updates coming in regularly as of late.
Source: Gov.UK