Sonia Arrison

Kangaroo Court in Brussels

Last week, European Commission (EC) regulators fined Microsoft 280.5 million euros (US$356 million), adding to the 497 million euros ($630.7 million) the company has already been forced to pay.

Noncompliance with a mandate to disclose technology documents is the official reason for the fine, yet the deadline for such compliance has not yet passed. This bizarre situation should serve as a warning to anyone thinking of doing business in Europe, and it should make the Europeans seriously question the legitimacy of their so-called “competition” policy.

In March 2004, the EC ruled that in addition to paying the record 497 million euro fine, Microsoft had to sell a copy of Windows without Media Player software and hand over the specifics of its Windows server technology to rivals. Both these mandates were meant to correct Microsoft’s supposedly harmful market power.

Of course, that supposition is highly suspicious, and the directives are currently under appeal at the European Court of First Instance. Take, for example, the idea of offering consumers a product with less functionality.

Read more here.

July 17, 2006 | Comments |

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    Well, I was gonna let this go, but this is the 2nd time you've
    posted about this. I like this blog, and someone needs to point out
    stuff like this.




    You claim the deadline hasn't passed, yet every source I've read says
    the deadline was December 15, 2005. I reference the following links:


    http://news.zdnet.com/...........


    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/............


    http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/..........


    If you have evidence to the contrary, please post it. I searched your
    article for "deadline", and couldn't find anywhere an actual date in
    the future.





    So I don't understand why you say the deadline hasn't passed.





    In any event, we all know MS is tasked with doing the near impossible.
    However, it should be possible for any decent software company whose
    source base is more organized than a spaghetti bowl. And that's really
    the whole point. They brought this on themselves.





    I mean no disrespect and don't want to start a flame, but I have
    serious questions with your claim about the deadline date. Please
    respond if you have some reference that says something different.


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    I believe these fines should be paid solely out of the proceeds of European sales.
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    AND - I believe we should require European manufacturers to make available any information needed to facilitate American manufacurers making substitute spare parts.
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    At this point, I cannot really make a well-analyzed statement on whether the European Commission (EC) is flawed or not. Nevertheless, my read of the article "Kangaroo Court in Brussels" leads me to support the position of European Commission against M$. Further Sonia's statement "the idea of offering consumers a product with less functionality" is flawed.




    A well-designed operating system should be developed in layers. Windows Media Player as well as Internet Explorer are really not part of the operating system, but are additional layers to the operating system. These components should be able to be removed and/or added, as the consumer wants. M$ does have a "crippled" and highly limited version of this approach in the Windows Control Panel. M$ has unfortunately taken the incorrect position that these components are integral to the operating system and cannot be removed. This is pure bunk, a red herring.





    Additionally, I find software companies "routinely" offer consumers so called "upgrades" where previous features mysteriously "disappear". I smell a double standard. If a government proposes something that in theory limits a computer application it is bad; but if a private company does it is good!?!? I acknowledge that Sonia did NOT imply the previous statement; it is simply an extrapolation of a pet peeve from having been burned on this issue.

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