Microsoft Eliminates Traditional Volume Licenses

Starting November 1, 2025, Microsoft will eliminate traditional volume licenses. Specifically affected are the major licensing models Enterprise Agreement (EA) and Microsoft Products and Services Agreement (MPSA). Previously, companies could receive discounts between 6 and 12 percent off the list price depending on the volume purchased. This will soon end. From November, all customers will fall into price level A – and will pay the full list price as it appears on the Microsoft website.

Existing contracts will continue, but with each renewal or purchase of new services, the price increase will take effect. All cloud services are affected, from Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 to Windows 365 and the security and compliance products. Only the US government and education price lists are exempt – a telling detail that once again shows where Microsoft’s priorities lie.

What’s Behind This?

Officially, Microsoft talks about “simplifying pricing structures” and allowing partners to “focus more on customers’ business needs.” In reality, it’s another step in a long-standing strategy: to drive customers consistently into their own cloud.

On-premises software is being made increasingly unattractive, whether through price increases, licensing hurdles, or artificial restrictions. Anyone wanting to use Microsoft products inevitably ends up in the cloud – where Redmond dictates the terms.

The Impact on Companies

• Vendor Lock-in: Once fully committed to Microsoft 365 and Azure, companies are tied to a single provider for the long term. Exiting is expensive, complex, and practically impossible for many. How simple services become costly platform dependencies is particularly evident with the major cloud providers.
• Rising Costs: Without volume discounts, companies will pay more in the future – and with every price adjustment in Redmond, expenses will continue to rise.
• Loss of Control: With the US Cloud Act, US authorities can access data at any time, even if stored in European data centers. From a data protection standpoint, this is a ticking time bomb.
• Digital Dependency: Many companies, especially in the public sector, are left without real alternatives. European solutions exist but are hardly promoted structurally.

The Bigger Picture

The elimination of volume licenses is not an isolated case but part of a pattern: Microsoft uses its dominant market position to gradually push customers into a model that serves the corporation alone. Pricing, contract structures, technical limitations – all aim to portray their cloud as without alternative.

And it works. A large portion of European companies is already reliant on Microsoft. This not only costs us economic flexibility but also a significant part of our digital sovereignty.

What Needs to Happen Now

Europe can no longer stand by. We need real investments in open-source solutions, promotion of platform-independent software development, and strategic alliances with European cloud providers. What digital sovereignty really means and why it is crucial for survival is becoming clear in such moments. Otherwise, we pay the price twice: financially – through rising costs – and politically – through the loss of control over our own data.