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EU Set To Charge Microsoft Over Ruling Breach

Posted by samzenpus on from the listen-to-the-law dept.

New submitter quippe writes in with some bad news for Microsoft. "Microsoft Corp will be charged for failing to comply with a 2009 ruling ordering it to offer a choice of web browsers, the European Union's antitrust chief said on Thursday, which could mean a hefty fine for the company. U.S.-based Microsoft's more than decade-long battle with the European Commission has already landed it with fines totaling more than a billion euros ($1.28 billion). The Commission, which opened an investigation into the issue in July, is now preparing formal charges against the company, EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said."

4 of 254 comments (clear)

  1. They have to ban Windows in EU by aglider · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If they want to really make any pressure on MS.
    If I fail to pay the fines to city police, they seize my car until I pay.
    The law should be equal to everyone.

    --
    Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
  2. Re:I don't understand why they're doing this by pahles · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can ship the screen in the code, but if you never show it to users what good is it then? Microsoft admits they didn't comply, so what's the problem with the EU fining Microsoft?

    --
    Sig?
  3. It didn't ship for 17 months by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/17/microsoft_ec_browser_choice_fresh_investigation/

    So 28 million Windows went out without the choice, and Microsoft got away with it for 17 months. I don't see why you have difficulty understanding it, it all seems pretty simple to me. It's not like they can claim ignorance, they were told by their competitors it wasn't showing the browser choice and they chose to 'investigate' it for a heck of a long time before finally fixing it when Brussels became involved.

    It's just Microsoft being Microsoft, they'll never change, just hit them with a big fat non-compliance fooling-nobody fine and move on till the next time (which will be the 3rd time) they do it.

  4. Re:Question: have they ever paid a single Euro? by metacell · · Score: 5, Informative

    We keep reading that they're being investigated, charged, "fined", but cut to the chase: what actual sums have left Microsoft's account and gone into the Brussels swill trough?

    The summary says $1.28 billion, i.e, just slightly more than Apple got from Samsung in a patent lawsuit where the jury didn't understand how prior art worked.