Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

EC Sends Statement of Objections To Microsoft For Violating Anti-Trust Agreement

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the go-to-court-like-it's-1998 dept.

dkleinsc writes "Three years ago, Microsoft came to an agreement with EU regulators that required them to provide users with a choice of web browsers. Last July, they found Microsoft in breach of that agreement. Today, they announced that this will result in charges, potentially resulting in fines as large as $7 billion." Microsoft gets one last chance to defend itself.

4 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. The only way... by serviscope_minor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The only way to make corporations behave is to make the fine firstly remove all profits from the nefarious acts and then add enough on top that the risk/reward ratio is larger than 1 so that they don't do bad things on the chance that they're not caught often enough to matter.

    In other words, the fine must really hurt otherwise it's just the cost of doing business (c.f. the paltry 1bn that intel had to spend for years of blatantly illegal market fixing).

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.
    1. Re:The only way... by moronoxyd · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not the "American company" argument again...

      Microsoft had a binding contract with the EU comission, and they broke it.
      If they hadn't, the browser ballot would bee a thing of the past in a few months and nobody would care about it anymore.

      But Microsoft fucked up, and now they have to face the music for breaking a contract.

      And the EU doesn't treat American companies any different from European companies. Ask Gaz du France and E.on whether they liked their fines of half a billion Euro each for collusion: http://ec.europa.eu/competition/elojade/isef/case_details.cfm?proc_code=1_39401

  2. Re:Slashdotters torn by conscience? by amiga3D · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I admit it's hard to feel sorry for microsoft. Anytime you see a company that's been as consistently evil as someone like MS has been finally get taken down by an even bigger, meaner bully you can't help but feel a little gleeful.

  3. Re:Slashdotters torn by conscience? by tuppe666 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    everybody knows that the ruling was politically motivated bullshit. Squeeze the american company for a few billion pesos.

    You are aware that the economy of the European Union generates a GDP of over €12.629 trillion (US$17.578 trillion in 2011) ...and they were guilty as sin.