Microsoft Office 365 Personal license

Question

Hello.

Are we allowed to use "Microsoft Office 365 Personal" product for business/commercial use? We are providing a printing service to our customers and we are looking for a affordable Office 365 license plan. Our use case: We open the document (Word and/or Excel) and print it out (we do not need to have the ability to edit documents).

I talked to support and they told me, that I can use it for business use. They've also sent me this URL:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Useterms/Retail/Office365/Personal/Useterms_Retail_Office365_Personal_English.htm

Below paragraph is somehow confusing to me:

(ii)   Office 365 Personal, Office 365 University and Office 365 Solo. For use by you only.  The non-commercial use restriction set forth in the Microsoft

Services Agreement does not apply to users of Office 365 Solo.

In Microsoft Service Agreement there is this paragraph:

i. Office Services. Office 365 Home, Office 365 Personal, Office 365 University, Office Online, Sway, OneNote.com and any other Office 365 subscription or Office-branded Services are for your personal, noncommercial use, unless you have commercial use rights under a separate agreement with Microsoft.

So, they told me that I can/may use "Microsoft Office 365 Personal" for business, but, according to "Usertems" and "Microsoft Service Agreement", I think I can/may not use it.

Best regards, Sašo

Answer 1

365 Home & Personal is not licensed for commercial use.

The link you provided (ii) is the only place I have seen the description 365 Solo used

Having said that you are simply providing a print service and not creating/editing docs, so your use is open to a technical interpretation, which if needs be would occupy legal minds for quite a time.

MS itself has no means of knowing what use its products are put to.

Answer 2

I've just talked to the support. Initially they've said that I can not use "Personal" for commercial use. Then, after some time, they've said that I can.

To summarize the conversation:

Them: You can not use "Personal" for business.

Me: But, yesterday, you've said that I can.

Them: It will depend on how you will use the license.

Me: I need the product to be installed only on one (1) business/work computer.

Them: Than you can use the product for commercial use.

Me: May I ask you to point me to the document/s (agreement/useterms) that clarifies this area?

Them: Oh sorry but we don't have the statement for that.

:S

Answer 3

Thanks for the quick and unambiguous reply Palcouk.

This means that official Microsoft support team does not understand their own license agreements and user terms well enough. It is frustrating that you can not rely on them.

I will speak to them again. Just want to clarify why they told me that "365 Personal" is licensed for commercial use.

Best regards, Sašo.

Answer 4

The licence is crystal clear.  You cannot use Office 365 for commercial purposes.  I think that what you are doing is using Office for commercial purposes.  You are obtaining reading and printing documents using Office 365 Personal software to do so.

Answer 5

Hi Sašo, "

*(ii)   Office 365 Personal, Office 365 University and Office 365 Solo. For use by you only.*The non-commercial use restriction set forth in the Microsoft Services Agreement does not apply to users of Office 365 Solo."  This is correct the problem is that you cannot purchase Office 365 Solo unless you live in Japan.  So no you cannot use Office 365 Personal for business/commercial use as per the licence conditions.

"Japan is a special country in many ways, even when it comes to buying Microsoft Office.  The Japanese can buy Office in ways that Microsoft have dropped for the rest of the world.

Office 365 Home and Personal plans are sold, by Microsoft’s count, in 246 countries and territories but not Japan.

Microsoft Japan has its own arrangements for selling Office 365.  Neither the Personal (single licence) or the more popular Home plan (five licenses) are available.

The only ‘subscription’ option is Office 365 Solo.  It’s a TWO license product as Microsoft says “can be installed on two Windows PCs or Macs used by the same user.” https://office-watch.com/2018/japan-special-place-buying-microsoft-office/ "