Lawyer To Sue Microsoft Over Storage Capacity Of Surface
A lawyer in California is suing Microsoft over his 32GB Surface, which he realized only had 16GB of free space. Andrew Sokolowski, the lawyer, is suing Microsoft for false advertising and unfair business practices, claiming that Microsoft should have told consumers that the 32GB Surface doesn’t actually have 32GB of free space.
The suit aims to change how Microsoft advertises its device and hopes to force the company to give back revenue and profits that resulted from its alleged wrongful conduct.
Microsoft said in a statement that it believes the suit is without merit.
“Customers understand the operating system and pre-installed applications reside on the device’s internal storage thereby reducing the total free space,” the company said. It noted that people can add storage via the microSD slot and USB port.
Microsoft confirmed on November 5 exactly how much usable storage space its Surface tablets come with out of the box. It says on its website that the 32GB Surface has 16GB of free space while the 64GB version has 45GB free. The Surface started selling October 26 and Sokolowski bought his device on November 7.
Sokolowski’s lawyer, Rhett Francisco, said on Wednesday that his client never saw Microsoft’s responses and said the details on its website are “buried.”
“They make you search and dig for it specifically, or you would never find it,” he said.
It’s common for mobile devices to have less usable storage space than advertised.
