WinDev / WebDev · « Enterprise mistakes » series
PCSOFT: the French State steps in, the Offers page quietly tightens
Three public facts, three dates. Two written questions filed in the French National Assembly, a legal analysis published by a Paris law firm, and an « Early Adopter » discount now hedged with tight conditions on the Offers page. Everything is sourced, everything is verifiable, and none of it comes from me: this time, the institutions are asking the questions.
23 June: written question no. 16261, to the Ministry of the Economy
MP Philippe Latombe (Vendée) filed written question no. 16261, published in the Journal officiel of 23 June 2026. It describes the commercial practices observed since PC SOFT was acquired by Two Squared France II: perpetual licences converted into subscriptions, step-by-step price increases, a fee on applications deployed at third parties with no contractual link to the vendor, and lock-in through the proprietary WLangage. It also asks an awkward question: why did the SISSE, the State service in charge of economic security, flag nothing at the time of the acquisition?
30 June: written question no. 16481, the national security angle
A week later, MP Jérôme End (Moselle) filed written question no. 16481, published in the Journal officiel of 30 June. The angle shifts: beyond economics, national security. The question names strategic users of these tools: the Ministry of Education, the Paris hospitals, several health insurance funds, air traffic control, defence, and manufacturers such as Safran, Thales and Dassault Aviation. The MP asks for an urgent census of the structures concerned and an assessment of what a service interruption would mean.
As I write, on 28 July 2026, neither question has received a ministerial answer. A written question is neither a judgment nor a sanction: it is a demand for explanations. But two MPs from different benches, one week apart, on the same file, says something about the level of alert.
Early July: the Offers page quietly changes
Meanwhile the official Offers page changed, without any announcement. The « Early Adopter » discount, already limited to the first year, is now reserved for subscriptions expiring in 2027. Those expiring in 2026? Eligible only if they renew at least 90 days before the deadline (observed on 28 July 2026, first reported on the forums on 6 July). In other words: sign fast, think later.
Remember the context: the only public per-session price, €290 excl. VAT, was removed from the site in mid-July. What remains are bundles with crossed-out prices (Bronze at €890 instead of €1,190, Silver at €3,500 instead of €4,690, Gold at €5,540 instead of €7,390) and, for everything else, a quote. A discount whose window closes 90 days before your own deadline is a mechanism that pushes you to renew early, before the ministerial answers arrive.
What the lawyers say
On 30 June the Paris firm Haas Avocats published an analysis of the available remedies against what it calls « software captivity ». Its ranking: abuse of a dominant position (Article 102 TFEU, Article L. 420-2 of the French Commercial Code) is judged the strongest lever; challenging the conversion of perpetual licences, and significant imbalance, intermediate ones; foreign investment control, the weakest. This is an analysis, not a court ruling: no tribunal has decided anything. But when law firms start publishing maps of remedies, files are being prepared.
What it changes for you: nothing, and that is the point
Do not wait for the ministry's answer or for a court decision to take back control. Both can take years; your renewal deadline has a date. The approach does not change: measure your real exposure first (how many sessions, which server, which deadline), then plan a staged exit, at your own pace, rather than a migration endured in a hurry. My trade is not polemics, it is the exit.
The exposure calculator is there for the first step: your seats, your applications, your three-year projection, with no data sent anywhere.