Bureaucrats aren’t clueless, so when one makes a comment the defies logic, like the following, it may mean something’s up:
The spokesman is referring to a comment from someone at Microsoft to the effect that uncertainty over how the EU will act is making it hard for the company to make some critical decisions on how to design its new operating system, Windows Vista. Microsoft asked for guidance from the EU and the EU has declined to respond, so it’s probably anything but misleading to say the commission could be the cause of delays.
Recall that in February a group of companies called the European Committee for Interoperable Systems filed a complaint with the EU to prevent Microsoft from extending its dominance into “a range of existing and pre-announced future product areas.” Basically, if anyone produces any kind of software, this group doesn’t want Microsoft to be allowed to build similar functionality into its Windows operating system. The group’s members are a familiar bunch, including: Adobe Systems, IBM, Nokia, Oracle, RealNetworks, and Sun Microsystems. These are companies who have a track record of seeking to buttress their leverage in negotiations with bigger or faster competitors by threatening to run to the teacher.
The EU must love it when this happens, because it opens opportunities for global influence that aren’t otherwise available to Europe as in the past. It’s a chance to boost European industry and, probably most importantly, there are always the institutional considerations. As Northwestern Law Professor Fred S. McChesney pointed out,
Anyway, following the complaint EU Commissioner for Competition, Neelie Kroes, sent a letter to Microsoft. The letter, like most of the work of her department, is not open to public scrutiny. But when asked about the letter, the same EU spokesman commented at the time, “We are concerned about the possibility that Vista will include software elements which are available separately… ”
He’s talking about the possibility, for example, that Vista will include a feature that does what Adobe’s popular Acrobat does only you won’t have to pay separately for it. If that happens, Adobe may have to lower its prices. If the EU cares more about protecting competitors than consumers, it could prohibit Microsoft from adding the new functionality to Vista or set up an onerous interop regime designed to eliminate any competitive advantage Microsoft may have, even if it’s legitimate.
We frequently see this desire to confine a rival to one single product segment, thus allowing its deserving competitors a chance to spread their wings in the adjoining niches. Government divided up the telecom market this way, for example. And 10 years later, nearly everyone realized that the line-of-business restriction separating local from long-distance was bad for consumers and for innovation. The ’96 Telecom Act created a path to a free market, but the FCC used it to deliberatly create an uneven playing field in the local exchange intended to give competitors a head start and a chance to become viable under minimal competitive pressure. The FCC gave competitors access to every element of the local exchange at wholesale discounts of approx. 50 percent and it sought to delay the entry of the Bell Operating Companies into long-distance as long as possible (approx. 5 years). Then-FCC Chairman Reed E. Hundt thought he was very clever. He was a great believer in “competition” law/regulation–or the idea that bureaucrats can do a better job of promoting competition than the free market. Fortunately, the Supreme Court tossed much of it out. And Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer commented that the plan to provide access to every element at steep discounts
Few sympathized with the Bell Operating Companies, because they seemed had wealthy and unassailable for so long. And few seem to sympathize with Microsoft, who’s also had it pretty good for a long time. Some think luck had a lot to do with it and that Microsoft was was only tangentially deserving. The software giant got its reward; now its time to share. The problem with this logic is (1) regulatory bureaucracies become permanent fixtures, constantly searching for ways to justify their requests for budget increases and (2) the regulated companies focus less on innovation and put more emphasis on participating in the regulatory process, attempting to dupe unsuspecting regulators–or induce the complictous-minded–into tilting the market to create winners and losers. Regulation is easy to summon forth, and difficult to contain. Ask anyone who is subject to regulation by the FCC–the agency is unpredictable. Today it’s your friend. Tomorrow it’s your enemy. Like a sail boat, it tacks with the political breeze.
When regulators take formal action, it can be really time-consuming–with investigations, hearings, findings of fact, conclusions of law–and worst of all, the whole thing can be appealed. The EU’s 2004 judgment against Microsoft was the product of a 5-year investigation and the appeal is still pending. There are also many informal tools in any regulator’s arsenal. Many times these don’t have to be published and can’t be appealed. One example is a vague warning to follow the law. Another is a set of detailed questions. Neither is an identifiable decision or action with consequences that can be reviewed by a court of law. But anyone contemplating the investment of millions or billions of dollars and relying on the assistance of counsel will immediately interpret the warning or the detailed questions as a serious wake-up call and will take whatever action they can think of to minimize their risk to the maximum extent, including going well beyond what is required by any law or regulation on the books. This is probably what the EU is up to. But it needs to reinforce the fiction that it isn’t really doing anything.
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
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