[nwiswell]

Step 1: Read your cloud services contract with Microsoft very carefully. What does it say about your liability for fraud?

Step 2: Read your business insurance policy very carefully. What does it say about fraud coverage? What are the limits and exclusions?

Step 3: Unless 1 or 2 makes it real clear the business is not liable, get a lawyer.

[akerl_]

Business insurance? That doesn’t sound like part of a minimum viable product.

[dhx]

Relevant agreements are perhaps one of:

1. OP <--> Partner (confidential agreement) <--> Microsoft (MPA)[1]

2. OP <--> Microsoft (MCA)[2]

3. OP <--> Microsoft (MOSA)[3]

The different types of agreements have different limitations of liability clauses. What OP wrote indicates a "partner" is involved and if this is the case, Microsoft have essentially shifted liability for fraud and billing non-payments onto the "partner"[4], who would then either wear the cost or try to shift this liability to the OP. It's not that straightforward though as any of the three parties could have a share of liability, and the "partner" would be very unlikely to want to get in a dispute with Microsoft as this would impact their other business. Liabilities are possibly also impacted by default spending limits and caps that are imposed by Microsoft on different services[5].

Allowing a $200,000 bill for one month (a 200x increase) has the appearance of being very poor financial management from the "partner" as they're potentially going to be stuck with unsecured $200,000+ liabilities from their customers if the customers became insolvent. I suppose it is possible the OP and "partner" have a bank guarantee in place to cover at least $200,000 but I'd hazard a guess they may just try to rely on an insurance policy instead to cover these rare events.

[1] Microsoft Partner Agreement (MPA): https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE...

[2] Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA): https://www.microsoft.com/licensing/docs/customeragreement

[3] Microsoft Online Subscription Agreement (MOSA): https://azure.microsoft.com/en-au/support/legal/subscription...

[4] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/non-payment...

[5] https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/legal/offer-detail...