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Microsoft's Price Fixing Penalty, 9M Euros

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the oh-darn-guess-we'll-do-that-again dept.

freakxx writes "Microsoft has been slapped with a fine of 9 million Euros by German regulators over illegally fixing the price of its Office-suite in an anti-competitive manner during a retail-promotion fair. Microsoft has accepted the fine and decided not to take this issue to any higher level."

7 of 237 comments (clear)

  1. small change... by smoatigah · · Score: 5, Funny

    Thats going to make a huge dent that is...

  2. "Anti-competitive" by brian0918 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I have never understood why a company should consider the detriment to its competition when pricing its products. Can anyone explain this to me? Should a person or organization be free to set the price of its products, whether too high or too low, and likewise be free to succeed or fail based on its actions? Isn't any answer besides "yes" an indication that people have a right to the product. Either that, or one would have to argue that people were somehow coerced into buying the product.

    1. Re:"Anti-competitive" by Insanity+Defense · · Score: 5, Informative

      But isn't that absurd? Isn't the entire concept of trade that the buyer and seller freely agree to the price of their product? If a store demands a company sell a product to them at a certain price in order to get placement in the store, the company is free to agree to the price or not

      This is not the manufacturer and retailer agreeing to a price between them. This is the manufacturer dictating to the retailer what price the RETAILER gets to charge its own customers.

      Once the manufacturer has sold a product they should no longer have any control of it. Should the car dealer you bought from be able to dictate the price you charge when you resell it later on? Should the home builder be able to dictate what price a susequent owner sells for? I for one think not. Once the product is sold the prior owner should have no control over the new owners dealing with that product.

  3. Re:That's Surprising... by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Easy. $9 million is not only pocket change to to Microsoft, it's very likely that $9 million < the legal bills to fight it.

    They could pay the lawyers > $9 million to fight it, or they can just pay the fine.

    Either way, the outcome is the same.

    Sometimes you just take the practical way out.

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  4. Re:Eurodollar to US Dollar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes. But eurodollar is actually a concept that exists in banking and predates the euro. They are dollars held in banks outside of the United States. They were instrumental to the establishment of the dollar as the world reserve currency. But with such similar terms it is not hard to see that people become confused.

  5. Re:That's Surprising... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wrong. It is *not* the legal costs.

    Legal fees are regulated in Germany. For a 9 Mill Euro court fight, assuming they use in-house lawyers for their defense, the standard costs (2 "full fees") to get a judgement are just Euro 20912.

    Seems MS just sees no chance to win...

  6. Cheap by Kynde · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If parking tickets where 2cents I could park where ever I'd like. I think the same holds for Microsoft in this case.

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