Keystone cops as Dutch police repeatedly mis-orders thousands of Office licenses worth nearly €3M

Dutch police reportedly ordered nearly 14 thousands of licenses for Microsoft Office back in 2008 — by mistake. The order cost the Dutch police €2,961,029. When the Dutch police administration noticed the mistake, the police filed a lawsuit against Microsoft — asking the software giant to cancel its orders ad refund the €3 million.

And now, a court has ruled in favor of Microsoft — stating that the company can keep the €3 million it received from the Dutch police. This is because Microsoft previously had to pay back €765,000 in the past due to a similar error — and the company even warned the Dutch police that it was a “one-time courtesy.” The company even stated that it isn’t legally obliged to comply with similar requests as it’s ‘in the absence of any legal basis for the correction required by the police.’ It’s certainly quite interesting how the Dutch police the same mistake twice, and that’s costing them nearly €3 million.

The Dutch police reportedly argued that the licenses purchased were not used at all, bu the court ruled that Microsoft was selling the rights to use its software — which means its usage is completely irrelevant.