How is this legal when people paid for a yearly plan in advance?

▲ bityard 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

In order to most-to-least charitable, any of:

1. Github could choose to grandfather in those plans and make no changes until those plans expire.

2. Github could offer, or the user could request, a pro-rated refund along with cancellation of the account.

3. Tough luck, those users agreed that Github could unilaterally change the ToS at any time.

	▲	asdfasgasdgasdg 6 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Right now there is a cancel and refund button on the Github Copilot annual subscription setting, which I have just pressed.
	▲	javawizard 6 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> 1. Github could choose to grandfather in those plans and make no changes until those plans expire. They explicitly stated that they won't be doing that: the multipliers go into effect in June for everyone, annual plan or not.

▲ boromisp 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I doubt you can force them to provide the service with the original terms, but you might be able to ask for a (partial) refund. If not today, after a week of verbal abuse they will receive for this online.

	▲	yladiz 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It depends where you’re located. In the EU they have to honor the contract you entered, but presumably there is a clause that they can prematurely terminate the contract without cause and give you all of your money back (from the start of the contract).

▲ deaux 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

In places with reasonable consumer protections (Australia, Germany) it almost certainly is illegal unless they give a full (whole year) refund. I think the short time limit of applying for a refund won't be looked at favorably either. Regardless of their ToS which I'm sure covers this.

But companies do lots of illegal things, and in general nobody takes them to court over it.

▲ mgrund 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

My thought exactly! First the usage limits + model limitations and now fundamental change to the billing. Hope some consumer watchdogs are looking into this!

▲ 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

▲ victorbjorklund 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

100% it says in their terms that they can change the service during the agreement.

▲ q3k 4 hours ago | parent [-]

That kind of clause would be void in many places around the world.

For example, the German Civil Code states:

    Section 308 - Prohibited clauses with the possibility of valuation
    In standard business terms, the following in particular are ineffective:
    [...]
    4.  (Reservation of the right to modify) the agreement of a right of the user [TL note: this means beneficiary of the terms, eg. party or other subject of the contract] to modify the performance promised or deviate from it, unless the agreement of the modification or deviation reasonably can be expected of the other party to the contract when the interests of the user are taken into account;

	▲	victorbjorklund 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Let’s see if German users can enforce it or not.

▲ drawfloat 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I just checked and you can cancel with a refund.

▲ dist-epoch 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

For the yearly plan they only change the model multiplier. And it's in the subscription contract they can change that multiplier at any time.