Wednesday, October 24th 2012
European Commission sends Statement of Objections to Microsoft on Browser Compliance
The European Commission has informed Microsoft of its preliminary view that Microsoft has failed to comply with its commitments to offer users a choice screen enabling them to easily choose their preferred web browser. In 2009, the Commission had made these commitments legally binding on Microsoft (see IP/09/1941). The sending of a statement of objections does not prejudge the final outcome of the investigation.
In its statement of objections, the Commission takes the preliminary view that Microsoft has failed to roll out the browser choice screen with its Windows 7 Service Pack 1, which was released in February 2011. From February 2011 until July 2012, millions of Windows users in the EU may not have seen the choice screen. Microsoft has acknowledged that the choice screen was not displayed during that period.
In December 2009, the Commission had made legally binding on Microsoft commitments offered by the US software company to address competition concerns related to the tying of Microsoft's web browser, Internet Explorer, to its dominant client PC operating system Windows (see IP/09/1941, MEMO/09/558 and MEMO/09/559). Specifically, Microsoft committed to make available for five years (i.e. until 2014) in the European Economic Area a "choice screen" enabling users of Windows to choose in an informed and unbiased manner which web browser(s) they wanted to install in addition to, or instead of, Microsoft's web browser. The choice screen was provided as of March 2010 to European Windows users who have Internet Explorer set as their default web browser.
The Commission had opened proceedings to investigate the potential non-compliance with the browser choice commitments on 16 July 2012 (see IP/12/800).
Background on the commitments decision
In January 2009, the Commission sent Microsoft a Statement of Objections, outlining its preliminary view that the company abused its dominant position in the market for client PC operating systems through the tying of Internet Explorer to Windows (see MEMO/09/15). In order to address the Commission's concerns, Microsoft offered commitments, including the set-up of a "ballot screen" in the Windows PC operating system, from which consumers could easily choose their preferred internet browser (see MEMO/09/352). In October 2009, the Commission market tested an improved proposal from Microsoft (see MEMO/09/439).
In light of the reactions to the market test, the Commission concluded that the commitments would remedy its competition concerns and made the commitments legally binding on Microsoft in December 2009, pursuant to Article 9 of the Antitrust Regulation No 1/2003.
More information about the browser choice commitment is available at: ec.europa.eu/competition/consumers/web_browsers_choice_en.html
Procedural background
A statement of objections is a formal step in Commission investigations. The Commission informs the parties concerned in writing of the objections raised against them and the parties can reply in writing and request an oral hearing to present comments.
The Commission takes a final decision only after the parties have exercised their rights of defence.
If a company has breached commitments made legally binding by way of an Article 9 decision, it may be fined up to 10% of its total annual turnover.
In its statement of objections, the Commission takes the preliminary view that Microsoft has failed to roll out the browser choice screen with its Windows 7 Service Pack 1, which was released in February 2011. From February 2011 until July 2012, millions of Windows users in the EU may not have seen the choice screen. Microsoft has acknowledged that the choice screen was not displayed during that period.
In December 2009, the Commission had made legally binding on Microsoft commitments offered by the US software company to address competition concerns related to the tying of Microsoft's web browser, Internet Explorer, to its dominant client PC operating system Windows (see IP/09/1941, MEMO/09/558 and MEMO/09/559). Specifically, Microsoft committed to make available for five years (i.e. until 2014) in the European Economic Area a "choice screen" enabling users of Windows to choose in an informed and unbiased manner which web browser(s) they wanted to install in addition to, or instead of, Microsoft's web browser. The choice screen was provided as of March 2010 to European Windows users who have Internet Explorer set as their default web browser.
The Commission had opened proceedings to investigate the potential non-compliance with the browser choice commitments on 16 July 2012 (see IP/12/800).
Background on the commitments decision
In January 2009, the Commission sent Microsoft a Statement of Objections, outlining its preliminary view that the company abused its dominant position in the market for client PC operating systems through the tying of Internet Explorer to Windows (see MEMO/09/15). In order to address the Commission's concerns, Microsoft offered commitments, including the set-up of a "ballot screen" in the Windows PC operating system, from which consumers could easily choose their preferred internet browser (see MEMO/09/352). In October 2009, the Commission market tested an improved proposal from Microsoft (see MEMO/09/439).
In light of the reactions to the market test, the Commission concluded that the commitments would remedy its competition concerns and made the commitments legally binding on Microsoft in December 2009, pursuant to Article 9 of the Antitrust Regulation No 1/2003.
More information about the browser choice commitment is available at: ec.europa.eu/competition/consumers/web_browsers_choice_en.html
Procedural background
A statement of objections is a formal step in Commission investigations. The Commission informs the parties concerned in writing of the objections raised against them and the parties can reply in writing and request an oral hearing to present comments.
The Commission takes a final decision only after the parties have exercised their rights of defence.
If a company has breached commitments made legally binding by way of an Article 9 decision, it may be fined up to 10% of its total annual turnover.
90 Comments on European Commission sends Statement of Objections to Microsoft on Browser Compliance
In the position they are, they don't need to resort to these kind of tactics and have been warned against them, which apparently, they chose to ignore.
An example:
Dude D goes from country A to country B and commits a crime there: should he be punished from country A laws or country B laws?
Furthermore: what if in country A it's not a crime but in country B it is (which seems more appropriate here)?
If a company want's to do business in other countries, it must make sure it abides by their laws. Microsoft has been warned and chose to ignore it.
Regardless of whether you agree with said law or not, the law is the law and you can't ignore it just because you don't agree with it. If you do, there are consequences.
EU doesn't really have laws to effectively tackle this sort of thing and they "think" it's OK as it is: wrong, IMO.
Have you ever heard of a case where a burglar was robbing a place, the police comes while the burglar is still robbing the place and they say something like this: "If you continue to rob this place you'll have to pay the price"?
You don't do you?
The only scenario where i could see the warning part being needed (companies) is when a law change is implemented in a way where before was legal and after it's not: if there are other such scenarios, then i dunno. Is this what happened in this case? Dunno either.
Does that make it OK? IMO, no it doesn't. Should they've upgraded the law by now? Absolutely. Whether they haven't done it by now because of shady interests, lack of interest, other cause, dunno :(
I don't really know when the law Microsoft's infringing was created but, as i said in a previous post, the law is the law and you can't break it just because you disagree with it: there will be consequences if you do.
As far as I understand iOS doesn't allow full browsers with different rendering engines besides the built-in one (Webkit which is mainly made by Appl€), while Android allows Firefox Mobile (Gecko) Opera Mobile (Presto), Dolphin Beta (modified Webkit engine that doesn't use evil CSS prefixes) besides the built in Webkit one. And it's very bad for Web standards, openness and innovation if only a single rendering engine dominates the market (ah... IE6 times) doesn't matter Webkit is cross-platform and open source blah blah.
Appl€ should get a call because of this. At least Windows (and Mac OS) and any mobile OS except iOS allow full third party browsers.