Monday, May 12th 2008
Microsoft Appeals Against the Record 899 Mln Euro EU Fine
Microsoft spokesman Jesse Verstraete announced it was appealing against the record 899 million euro ($1.39 billion) fine imposed by the European Commission for not providing key code to rival software makers and prolonged misbehaviour allegations. "Microsoft today filed to the (EU) Court of First Instance an application to annul the European Commission decision of February 27," the U.S. software giant said in a late Friday mail. "We are filing this appeal in a constructive effort to seek clarity from the court," it said. Microsoft has been fined a total of 1.68 billion euros by the EU for abusing its 95 percent dominance of PC operating systems through its Windows operating system. The Commission had initially fined Microsoft 497 million Euro in March 2004 for deliberately damaging rivals by offering its Windows Media Player with Windows. The second fine of 899 million Euro followed in February 2008, that's also the biggest ever fine imposed on a company by the EU committee.
Source:
EETimes.uk
81 Comments on Microsoft Appeals Against the Record 899 Mln Euro EU Fine
I just don't understand why they can't just pay the damn money though. They have like 50bil already...
The EU was a way to bring together Europe, financially. It brought down the better off countries and lifted up the lesser countries(financially speaking). It also pushed the Euro as a currency for all countries that joined it(with the exception of Britain, maybe a few others).
PS. Hat, I believe you were thinking of the UN which is something way different. :laugh:
Neither side is willing to back up, but somehow I fail to see this ending happily for M$ in any case :/
For example we can look at an abstract case. For this example the fact of legal jurisdiction is not taken into account. If a bunch of police officers were to come to America from where I am in Britain and started arresting people for possessing firearms this would be illegal, even though this is the law from where these officers are from because they are in a different country with different laws they must abide by the laws of that country (remember we are disregarding jurisdiction here). Its the same in Microsoft's case they have chose to operate in the areas with these different laws and must abide by them if they wish to continue to operate in this area.
All Power to the EU
i prefer to buy stuff in us then in eu cus i need to pay 15-20% tax on hardware/software :S
Right, Why don't they knock Intel to open up their designs as well? Defending trade-secrets and intellectual property is no crime.
If MS fails in the appeal they can go to online ordering/shippping also, or ship to retailers only that order from the US. It would cost Europe more money then, but close the MS office in Europe and transer all stocks to the American market. Simple as that, then jack the price up 20%, lock out the code these people have obtained and write new code they have to buy. MS shouldn't have to give anything away. IF i was Steve Ballmer id make it hurt the entire continents economy. Not to mention it would give them more time to improve there products for the other markets that actully want the products and are willing to play by MS's game. Shut down xbox live, stop 360 warranty service and sales ect of MS products in all EU nations ect, make it impossible without paying extravagant fees to even use an MS product in Europe. I promise that will catch the EU's eye and make them revoke there stupidity
how mutch does a copy of vista ultimate 64bit cost in US? here it cost 300 euro
In terms of pulling out of europe this simply wouldn't happen. Europe is a massive market for Microsoft products and they make a lot of money which they couldn't stop making as it would negatively effect their share price.
I also question why it is wrong to prevent a company gaining an almost 100% monopoly on the market by preventing competition in the first place causing innovation to grind to a halt and preventing private organisations from using their dominance of the economic markets to gain political power over governments.
It is very dangerous when profit making companies with very inward interests gain political power and it is something you may wish to consider when you examine the current state of the American government (not that ours is much better atm but that can be partially associated to this bloody stupid 'special friendship' we're are meant to have with the US)
America associates itself with a very extreme form of capitalism and while the EU does also for the most part follow a similar style it is not quite to the same extreme level taken by the US.
There will always be disputes between countries and the different ways that they do things. This is not to say that say of these ways are inherently wrong but they may contain fundamental differences. Companies such as Microsoft want to have access to all of the big world markets as exclusion would lose them vast amounts of money. In addition in Microsoft were to pull out of Europe causing the EU community to have to switch to Microsoft competitors this would have knock on effects causing them to lose ground in other areas outside the EU(granted not on a massive scale but still...)
NB: This post was in no way intended to insult anyone but people must always remember that a wider view must be taken when looking at international issues and if a company wishes to deal with everyone in this community (which Microsoft do) they must respect the laws which define the markets they wish to be a part of.
Also, MS are certainly guilty of anti-competition laws. Besides, I don't know why we are fighting.. in the end this works out better for us all. More competition = better products and cheaper prices. A monopoly isn't good for anyone except MS.