Slashdot Mirror
EU Fines Microsoft $1.3 Billion
jd writes "The EU has slammed Microsoft with a fine of €899 million ($1.337 billion at current exchange rates) for perpetuating violations of the 2004 antitrust ruling.The fine is the sum of daily fines running from June 21, 2006 to October 21, 2007. It is the first company ever to be fined for non-compliance. The amazing thing is that the EU now expects Microsoft to comply and 'close a dark chapter' in their history. The EU has opened new investigations into Microsoft's practices and gave a lukewarm response to the company's turning over yet another new leaf last week."
As I understand it, fines issued by the EU go to EU member states.
I also don't understand why the size of the fine "clearly" indicates that people are lining their pockets. This is not the largest fine ever issued. (ExxonMobil was fined $5 Billion for Exxon Valdez, later halved, but so far not paid.)
The EU will simply take the money by force. Microsoft has assets moving through the EU, in the form of their revenue from sales of their products. The EU will walk in to the retail outlets and take that revenue until they have their money - the money from every copy of Windows and every xbox sold will go directly to the EU, and Microsoft will never receive it. This is the standard method that courts use for extracting fines from recalcitrant corporations - you don't ban their products, you just take their products.
And they'll keep doing it for as long as it takes.
The dollar doesnt fluctuate, it drops.
Today it hit the lowest ever value against the Euro.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
They do again and again. It's mostly, but not always price fixing. Other examples include Volkswagen that threatened their Italian dealers to pull the dealership when they sold to customers not living in Italy.
Fines are usually very hefty and companies usually comply. Micropsoft risks to fall really flat on their face if they try their usual stints here.
ich bin der musikant
mit taschenrechner in der hand
kraftwerk
Repeat after me,
"You are not allowed to use a monopoly in one area to try and leverage an advantage in another area."
That is why different rules apply to Apple and various X/GNU/Linux distributors as apply to Microsoft.
Microsoft has an effective monopoly in the desktop OS market, and by bundling Windows Media Player (and MSIE for that matter...), they are creating a situation where people might use it to create WMP files (especially as that is the default).
You might say that it isn't a big deal if people rip CDs to WMP, but then they want to play them on a portable media player, they have to make sure that it plays them. The company that makes the media player is giving a kick-back (patent licencing?) to Microsoft, and thus Microsoft is leveraging its monopoly in the desktop OS to give it an advantage in another market.
That is just one example of why they shouldn't be allowed to do it, but there are plenty of others.
I wank in the shower.
Before everyone starts slagging off the EU and Nellie Kroes, please take a look at a recent BBC interview with her here, its very good
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/inbusiness/inbusiness_20080124.shtml
She really is for the consumer and for competition, this is NOT a EU vs US thing.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Thats what MS used to do. Its not really in a situation to do that anymore though.
You have no freakin clue what you're talking about, "where the money goes" is a matter of pubic record, with a nice clear paper trail. If you're curious about it, go look it up. Don't create baseless accusations.
Modding Trolls +1 inciteful since 1999
YES RLY... That's a constituion, I said Treaties. There's a difference.
Other EU countries may have referendums on treaties sometimes but their govs can make the decision themselves, but Ireland are required by our own constitution to have a referendum every time.
Some of the EU's decisions on competition
EU's Press release on this specific matter
And a FAQ of why MS is getting fined when they say they have complied in 2007
And by lowest ever you mean lowest in 9 years.
But they do:
Lift cartel: http://www.eubusiness.com/Competition/lifts-cartel-eu.33
Zippers: http://www.eubusiness.com/Competition/1190197926.91/
Dutch brewers: http://www.eubusiness.com/Competition/beer-cartel.09/
All hundred million dollar fines or more...
From the EU website:
The penalty payment is paid into the EU Budget. It does not increase the budget, but reduces the contribution from Member States and so from taxpayers.
So in deference to us paying the Microsoft tax Microsoft is paying (a small part of) EU tax, brilliant
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
First of all, this case is not about Microsoft Office, but about bundling of Windows Media Player with Windows and about interoperability between Microsoft server systems and other servers. Second, the rationale behind anti-trust laws (both in the US and the EU in fact, it's just that in the case of Microsoft the EU has been more persistent in pursuing the company) is that if a player on the market achieves a certain dominance, regulators need to intervene to safeguard competition. So in theory, Microsoft could one day be forced to make MS Office interoperable if it had achieved such a dominance on the market that it stifled competition. That is what happened with the server protocols - if MS were one of many players, it would be perfectly alright for it to keep its protocols closed and not share information. But because it has such a dominant position, it is forced to share some of its proprietary information for the common good.
That's total nonsense, the EU takes similar sorts of actions against many other large companies all the time. Microsoft are just making things more painful for themselves and dragging things out by not compying with the law.
Microsoft WILL comply, or the consequences will be enormous.
:)
The fines will just keep increasing until they can't afford not to comply. And if they don't pay, bank accounts will be frozen etc etc. If that doesn't do it, the company will eventually be declared bankrupt and their assets will be sold to the highest bidders.
In contrast to what the MS fanboys say about the subject, they will not get away with non compliance as they did in the US.
EU politicians *cannot* be bought and they will not be scared by threats of MS leaving Europe. Not that I believe MS would make such a threat, which would be extremely stupid and would make all of their customers run.
I strongly believe that MS will just pay the fines and start complying and everyone will just be happy in the end.
No because Apple does not have a MONOPOLY you MORON HOW MANY TIMES do we have to EXPLAIN THIS the RULES ARE DIFFERENT FOR MONOPOLIES ARRRRGGGGHH!!!!!!!
Why was above comment modded flamebait? Here's a graph of the value of the dollar in euros. Looks like it's dropping to me. http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=USDEUR=X&t=5y.
MSFT has complied with that part of the order. It took MSFT 3 years to comply with other parts Like licensing CIFS/SMB to third parties without the cost overhead. That is how SAMBA got the file formats.
Because MSFT dragged their feet in complying they were fined some 2 million euros a day. This is that fine. this has nothing to do with windows media player as MSFT already took care of that part by releasing a media player free version of windows.
Also as a side effect this is 1.3 billion less dollars that MSFT will have to buy Yahoo with. Some 6% of the cash MSFT has on hand.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Ratification of the constitution is a treaty - it's the national government agreeing to be bound by it.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
From what I remember it was more along the lines of OS, Office and Internet. The Bush DoJ canned the idea.
The EURO exists longer than 9 years. It is only since then that notes and coins are available. In former times the EURO has been called ECU.
Nitpicking with an AC...
Euro an ECU are not the same thing, but when the second replaced the first one, its value was chosen to be initially the same. Look for the ECU and Euro wikipedia pages.
Also coins and notes are available only since 2002.
I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
Except that you can't - the same EU Commission is pushing for US-style software patents in europe. Strip away the rhetoric, and look at how the money flows - microsoft pays EU Commission 1 Billion, EU Commission works hard to introduce US-style software patents, which are only good for Microsoft and IBM and catastrophic for EU small business owners (like myself).
And rather than fix it by raising interest rates, the Fed is doing the opposite, attempting to stave off a recession that's going to happen anyway. The sad thing is, they're only making things dramatically worse, because they're setting the U.S. economy on the road to hyperinflation. What good will it do trying to encourage consumption when the foreign goods they want us to consume keep getting more expensive?
I think you may have accidentally struck upon something here!
That is exactly the system we have in place. A well-regulated market, structured to further advantage the entrenched position of already concentrated wealth, at the expense of all other consideration.
UGN Indeed!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
We don't have to wonder, we just have to look at the EU council's record of prosecuting companies based in the EU for antitrust abuse. (They've done it many times.)
I think not.You research not... but you still make uninformed assertions.
You could always ask big pharma...