Slashdot Mirror
Should Microsoft Be Excluded From EU Government Sales?
David Gerard writes "From Groklaw: Heidi Rühle, a Green Party MEP, has presented a question regarding whether or not Microsoft should be considered as having failed to fulfill the conditions to participate in public procurement procedures in Europe, as laid out in Article 93(b) and (c) of Financial Regulation — '(b) they have been convicted of an offense concerning their professional conduct by a judgment which has the force of res judicata; (c) they have been guilty of grave professional misconduct proven by any means which the contracting authority can justify' — and the Commission anti-trust penalty just happens to fulfill both of those conditions." The EU Commission is required to respond within 6 weeks to such a question from a member of Parliament.
...or are most people blind to the fact that just about every corporation out there today (and yesterday) had participated in monopolistic behavior at some point. I can name off quite a bit, so do all these too need to be banned from doing business?? Lol, Let who is without Sin be the first to throw a Stone!
Precluding them from doing further business and consequential damage to competition is much better than mere fines. I'm sure MS wouldn't bat a corporate eyelid before writing a check or checks needed to still compete in the EU.. like in the corrupted ISO voting process.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
You forgot about the world war in 2033!
China - 2008 - 1,321,851,888 (July 2007 est.)
USA - 2008 - 301,139,947 (July 2007 est.)
EU - 2008 - 495.5 million
And then...
USA - 2033 - 0 survivors.
EUR - 2033 - 0 survivors.
China - 2033 - 4 Billion.
Cue "I am Legend" quotes and references, but they do not apply.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.