EU Regulators Open New Microsoft Investigations

The New York Times is reporting on two new investigations into Microsoft business practices opened by EU antitrust regulators. The new cases center on the company's positioning of Office and Internet Explorer, and were apparently partially prompted by Microsoft's earlier heel-dragging. "'It would have been preferable if these issues could have been resolved amicably with Microsoft,' said Jonathan Todd, a spokesman for the European competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes. 'But that has not proved to be the case. Therefore we have opened these formal investigations. That does not prove there is a violation. We will only be able to come to a conclusion after investigations.' The legal battle that ended last year involved the bundling of a media player with Windows and the availability of information required to make rival software operate smoothly with Microsoft products. In September, the Court of First Instance, Europe's highest after the European Court of Justice, endorsed the commission's 2004 decision to impose record fines on Microsoft."

Comments

Re:The only way to fight bundling...

[zappepcs]

funny thought just occurred to me: Religion used to come all bundled together in a single package in the form of the Roman Catholic Church. Now we have the King James version of the bible, and also the Church of England as a result of the un-bundling process. Sometimes you need force to ensure that the un-bundling happens! Perhaps it's not good to mention MS and religion in the same paragraph, but I think the analogy is good here. When there is only one official version of the declared legitimate bible, it takes serious effort to show that another version is just as good, or even easier to use etc.

In fact, there was more than one Monarch that was a bit upset to see their countries liquid cash assets going to the ruler of another country. In the EU, there might be more than one reason to not like MS.