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Hungary Officials Raid Microsoft Office

Posted by Zonk on from the can't-keep-its-nose-clean-anywhere dept.

Steve writes "Hungarian government officers raided the offices of a Microsoft subsidiary this week, as part of a probe into the company's relationship with large software distributors. From the article: 'According to the statement, Microsoft used sales conditions and offered software distributors incentives - described as loyalty discounts - so they wouldn't offer clients anything but Microsoft Office products. Such behavior could lead to the exclusion of competitive products from the market and violate European Union rules, according to the authority known as the GVH.'"

3 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Same Old Microsoft by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 4, Informative

    Doesn't Bill Gates have enough money?

    Actually, no, not anymore. Carlos Slim has more, and that cannot stand.

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  2. Re:What? by jeffasselin · · Score: 3, Informative

    Euh Monopoly 100% market. Microsoft does have a monopoly on the operating system market, and has used it illegally. That was clear from the US trial and has been declared such by the EU officials in charge of this matter.

    And this may be regular business for other companies, but although monopolies aren't illegal per se, they face specific legal restrictions as to their business practices. Such as these, which Microsoft is barred from doing.

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    If he explores all forms and substances Straight homeward to their symbol-essences; He shall not die.
  3. Comments from Budapest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    First, please stop the hungry-Hungarian jokes. It is not funny. It never was.
    Someone mentioned that open source software is widely used here. Unfortunately, it is not the case. Windows XP and MS Office .doc format is the (un)official standard at lots of places. And the government does not want to change that: for example, the Ministry of Education pays a huge amount each year to MS, for licensing MS operating systems and office apps for every Hungarian schools and universities.
    On the other hand, lots of pirated MS software was used previously, so now the Ministry pays this yearly "protection money" so the BSA does not go after the teachers and students.
    This "attack" on MS could be a simple mistake, an attempt to lower the prices for the government, or perhaps MS.hu forgot about the bribe for the GVH... we will never know the truth.

    This whole story might seem incoherent for anyone living in a sane country... but Hungary is FUBAR now :(

    András