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EU Official Labels Microsoft's Behavior Unacceptable

Posted by Zonk on from the i-thought-he-who-had-the-gold-makes-the-rules dept.

InfoWorldMike writes "EU commissioner Neelie Kroes has lashed out at Microsoft in comments to European parliamentarians Thursday, saying it is 'unacceptable' that the company continues to gain market share using tactics that were outlawed in the Commission's 2004 antitrust ruling against the software vendor. 'Three years later Microsoft still hasn't complied with the main demand imposed by the European antitrust ruling: that the company share interoperability information inside Windows at a reasonable price to allow rival makers of workgroup servers to build products that work properly with PCs running Windows.'"

8 of 290 comments (clear)

  1. Sigh. by Khaed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why is it that only Europe is standing up to them?

    1. Re:Sigh. by jalet · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Sorry, in the part of the world I live in we usually don't use "consuming" and "culture" in the same sentence.

      --
      Votez ecolo : Chiez dans l'urne !
    2. Re:Sigh. by ciggieposeur · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'll respond only because I've got 10 minutes to waste...

      European countries use Windows for the same reason Americans do: MS rode the wave of personal computing and then began setting up illegal business deals to catapult itself into a monopoly position. They use Windows for the same reason you use Canadian, Venezualan, and OPEC oil: you have to. OTOH, they are taking the lead in moving away from Windows unlike many of their American counterparts.

      Second, the Internet was NOT paid for by the USA. The current protocols were developed with DoD research dollars, but they were informed by experimental networks in Britian and elsewhere. The actual network hardware was purchased by them for their own networks, and for the most part that was all manufactured in Asia.

      And BTW I am an American enrolled at a prominent Texas university in a top-tier engineering graduate program that has 90% international students.

  2. The Joke must be made by paladinwannabe2 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Help competitors build products that work properly with PCs running Windows? Even Microsoft can't do that!

    --
    You are reading a copy of my copyrighted post.
  3. Not taking sides... by GrayCalx · · Score: 5, Interesting

    But I would like to see what would happen if Microsoft just said "We're not changing our practices, so we won't sell our products in Europe." Would computer users revolt against the EU? Would they be angry at MS instead? Meh, it'll never happen but sometimes just to watch the debacle of it all, I wish it would.

  4. Re:I can't believe I am saying this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    > Europe is trying to force its socialist business practices on the the free world.

    Where is this free world and what do you call it when the US uses the WTO to dictate trade policy for the rest of the world?

    Microsoft are free to stop breaking the law anytime they please.

  5. I have to laugh by WindBourne · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Bill has correctly figured it out that it is better to cheat,steal, and lie, pay a hefty fine later and OWN the market than it is to play fair. The longer that a gov. takes to play these games with MS is only to MS's advantage. If EU really wanted to stop this, they would tell MS if you have 1 month and then we charge you 5 x all of the EU sales/month each month. Only when it is not in Bill Gates best advantage will he comply.

    Since it has been 3 years and MS has not complied, it is obvious to me that EU will not really be cracking down.

    I may not like BG but you have to admire him. He knows how to run circles around govs.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  6. Re:USA/EU corporate style by Gorath99 · · Score: 5, Informative

    1The notion that *only* USA companies would be sued for that is totally bogus and plainly untrue. It may be that USA-ones *seem* to happen more because:

    1)It gets a higher profile when one is sued, because they make more fuss about it (together with the 'look, it's the EU against USA' attitude)

    2)USA corporations are more prone to anti-competitive behaviour (maybe due to the inherent strong corporatism in the USA where one easily buys politicians)

    3)EU-corporations are as bad as USA ones, only they can cover it up better


    You're very close with number 1, but the biggest reasons (IMHO) are:

    1) US news only reports when the EU fines a US company.
    2) Slashdot only reports when the EU fines an IT company and most of them are from the US.

    For those who truly feel that the EU is specifically after US companies: do some searching on European news outlets on companies fined by the EU for anti-competitive behavior. Many, if not most of them, are from the EU itself. For instance, in the past year Siemens (German) has been fined 397 million euros, Akzo Nobel (Dutch) has been fined 25.2 million euros, Solvay (Belgian) 167 million euros, Total (French) 78.6 million euros, Edison (Italian) 58.1 million euros.

    And those are just from the first 2 cases I found on a quick search. Hardly a month goes by that I don't read about another big case.

    Sources (in Dutch):
    http://www.nu.nl/news/955922/32/rss/EU-boete_drukt _winst_Siemens.html
    http://www.nu.nl/news/725210/32/rss/Akzo_krijgt_ka rtelboete_van_EU.html