EU to Microsoft: hand over $357 million USD
by Sonia Arrison on July 12, 2006
EU regulators today fined Microsoft 280.5 million Euros ($357 million USD) for supposedly not complying with their demands. Of course, the regulator’s demands are currently in the appeals process and the Commission dragged their heels in making their demands clear, but still, they argue that it’s Microsoft’s fault. That seems pretty unfair, and prompted MS’s General Counsel to say, rather diplomatically (imagine if Steve Jobs were in this position!), that “the real issue here is not about compliance, it’s about clarity.” Apparently, Microsoft has over 300 employees working around the clock to satisfy the EU bureaucrats who seem to know little about the tech industry (see my pervious posts on this, especially those about the product the Eurocrats designed that no one wanted to buy). What a mess.
Sonia Arrison / Sonia Arrison is an author and policy analyst who has studied
the impact of new technologies on society for more than a decade. A Senior Fellow at the California-based Pacific Research Institute (PRI) and a columnist for TechNewsWorld, she is author of two previous books (Western Visions and Digital Dialog) as well as numerous PRI studies on technology issues. A frequent media contributor and guest, her work has appeared in many publications including CBS MarketWatch, CNN, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. She was also the host of a radio show called "digital dialogue" on the Voice America network and has been a repeat guest on National Public Radio and CNN's Headline News.
Comments on this entry are closed.