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Microsoft appeals record European Commission fine
Microsoft has decided to fight an uphill battle against the European Commission by appealing a $1.4 billion fine levied against it for not complying with a milestone European Commission anti-trust ruling. The software giant says it is making a “constructive effort to seek clarity from the court.”
The fine was imposed because of Microsoft's non-compliance with earlier anti-trust rulings and for charging excessive royalty fees to rivals seeking inter-operability information for their server software. European Commission spokesperson Jonathan Todd said in a statement that the commission is “confident that the decision to impose the fine is legally sound.”
The decision to appeal is a bit surprising considering Microsoft had said earlier this year it wanted to make a fresh start in its often bitter relations with the commission. In any case, it seems there’ll be yet another chapter in Microsoft’s decade-long brawl with the EU over antitrust issues.
The fine was imposed because of Microsoft's non-compliance with earlier anti-trust rulings and for charging excessive royalty fees to rivals seeking inter-operability information for their server software. European Commission spokesperson Jonathan Todd said in a statement that the commission is “confident that the decision to impose the fine is legally sound.”
The decision to appeal is a bit surprising considering Microsoft had said earlier this year it wanted to make a fresh start in its often bitter relations with the commission. In any case, it seems there’ll be yet another chapter in Microsoft’s decade-long brawl with the EU over antitrust issues.
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User Comments (8)
Post a comment| fada on May 9, 2008 6:58 PM | Come on the E.U.!You wouldn see this happening in the states cause they got to many people in there pockets!
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| jbs1951 on May 10, 2008 12:39 AM | If I was microsoft, I'd tell europe to get lost. cut off ALL MS software to Europe EUA and see how they like it. They can just all go back to the stone age. $1.4 billion? Sounds like a greed fine to me. Who gets the money? Yea, this stinks of corruption.
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| fullmetalvegan on May 10, 2008 2:20 AM | Yeah I agree. Just tell them fine **** off then and never sell any MS product to the EU again. That'll learn them.
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| fada on May 10, 2008 6:40 AM | The people of Europe get the money, and microsoft is a serial law breaker! what happens when you stiffle competion and get caught? you get fined is what! And as for yer thoughts on microsoft leaving europe, it's a good thing either of ye have nothing to do with any business cause that thing would fall flat on it's face cause yer a bit slow!
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| fullmetalvegan on May 11, 2008 1:26 AM | Please enlighten us oh wise fada.
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| canadian on May 11, 2008 12:06 PM | Fada, while I believe I understand your argument, you should try to make it more clear in the future. 
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| shl0791 on May 11, 2008 10:42 PM | and why has Apple not been fined yet? Itunes, is incompatible with everything else, OSX is a closed off gui based off of a linux distro. (please correct me if I'm wrong)
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| Rick on May 11, 2008 11:40 PM | and why has Apple not been fined yet? Itunes, is incompatible with everything else, OSX is a closed off gui based off of a linux distro. (please correct me if I'm wrong) OS X is actually BSD, which is not the same as Linux. They are both POSIX OSes so they have many similarities, but are most definitely not the same thing. For the average person though, this is just me being pedantic. 
IMO, I think the fines are ridiculous. MS' business practices are questionable, but I don't agree with the EU here. They just want money and are making an example of MS. For example, when the EU decided that Windows needed to be shipped without a Windows Media Player - WTF is that? What is the purpose of stripping out a BASIC feature like the ability to play multimedia...? So other players can compete? Seriously? How about we take out Internet Explorer so people can install their own browser while we're at it... Hell, let's remove Windows Explorer - I think people need a choice in what file manager and shell they use! You get the point... And the EU has also had issues with MS' pricing. I do too - especially the prices in Europe - but a billion dollar fine? Why? Can I not set the price for my own products in Europe? If the argument is there aren't alternatives, lowering the prices isn't going solve that. There still won't be alternatives and after paying all those fines, I'm sure that cost gets passed to EU customers, which might explain why they are so high already. 
If this billion dollars goes to R&D into making an alternative to Windows - Great! - But it isn't. It's going to line the pockets of people who probably don't deserve it and then the left overs trickle down into some EU social programs that improve your lives in some mostly insignificant way. I know the third issue the EU had with MS is their supposed non-interoperability. I'm a little undecided on this one. Windows isn't open source nor is it meant to be. MS has APIs that 'get the job done' without exposing the underpinnings of their intellectual property and as things are these days, that seems OK. I'm actually all for publishing this stuff, but I feel as though it isn't a court's or commission's responsibility for force this using legal means... Again though, this is probably better for the market so the argument here is do the means justify the ends.
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