The Association for the Rights of Users and Consumers, which is a watchdog for Italian consumers, is to mount a class-action lawsuit to obtain compensation for customers who buy PCs with preinstalled Microsoft software but don't want the OS on their machines.

The case wants the return of the cost of the unwanted Microsoft software from the manufacturers of computer hardware. Vincenzo Donvito, president of ADUC said that more than 2,000 people, most of them Linux users, have already expressed interest in participating in the lawsuit.

Italians have just discovered the joy of class actions which were only included in law on January 1. After a long battle with supporters the ADUC managed to win a pilot case in Florence.

That victory modified the situation and many producers now allow a refund, but with a difficult and complicated system. Customers have to send their computers to the manufacturers' headquarters to get the software removed and then they only receive compensation of 30 to 40 euros for a product that costs between 150 and 250 euros.

Judges in Florence will have to decide whether to accept the lawsuit, and the process could take several months, as the administrative machinery for processing the new lawsuit requests is not yet in place, Donvito said. (Why doesn't Donvito just make them an offer they can't refuse? sub.ed.)