With our software licenses, you can stay calm, even if the auditors come knocking on your company's door. Read our answers to the most burning questions you might have and find out more about what to expect.
Under what conditions can a license audit occur in my company?
Basically, there are only two situations that can lead to a software license audit in your company:
- You have a contract with a software producer (e.g. Microsoft), which allows them (or other legally authorized entities) to execute a software audit in your company.
- Your company is rightfully suspected of software piracy and a court ordered a software audit that will be executed by the police together with a certified auditor.
In all other cases, the software manufacturer cannot perform a software audit without your consent. This also applies to secondary software licenses – even if the original contract between the first license owner and the software producer contained the obligation to allow a software audit, the EU legislation ensures this obligation is lifted by the transfer of rights to another license owner.
If an audit occurs in my company, how can I prove the legality of our software?
You are obliged to prove you are the rightful owner of your software licenses and that they meet all legal requirements. This is achieved by providing documentation that you received upon purchasing them to the auditor. If you bought your licenses from our company, these documents will be an invoice and a set of accompanying documents (including License Agreement number, origin of the software, First owner declaration etc.).
What if the auditor has further questions (for example about the previous software owner)?
The auditors are trained to know the latest EU legislature, which means they shouldn’t ask such questions. Out of hundreds of audits that were performed in our customers’ companies across the EU, we have registered only several cases when the auditor required additional documentation.
In case you would experience this rather rare situation, do not hesitate to get in touch with us and we will answer all questions the responsible authority might have. It is in the first owner’s interest, that we are not normally able to share documents containing their sensitive information (as these documents are stored in notarial safekeeping, or similar), but to the auditor, we can provide all documentation he/she requires.