Microsoft's Official Statement Following EU Commission Objections on IE with Windows

[alexp999]

It is not the first time that Microsoft has had run-ins with the European Commission. The problem that keeps coming up is what the commission believes to be anti-competitive practices, being that Microsoft is bundling its own software with Windows instead of offering them separately. As has been seen with Windows 7, Microsoft has tried to keep them happy this time, by only including Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer. The rest can be downloaded free of charge, by what Microsoft has named the Windows Live Suite. It seems that this is not enough however, despite Internet Explorer being included in Microsoft's operating systems for over ten years, they have decided that this is an anti-competitive move by Microsoft, and as such have issued a Statement of Objections. The commission has given Microsoft approximately two months to respond, the official statement from Microsoft follows:

Yesterday Microsoft received a Statement of Objections from the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission. The Statement of Objections expresses the Commission's preliminary view that the inclusion of Internet Explorer in Windows since 1996 has violated European competition law. According to the Statement of Objections, other browsers are foreclosed from competing because Windows includes Internet Explorer. The Statement of Objections states that the remedies put in place by the U.S. courts in 2002 following antitrust proceedings in Washington, D.C. do not make the inclusion of Internet Explorer in Windows lawful under European Union law.

"We are committed to conducting our business in full compliance with European law. We are studying the Statement of Objections now. Under European competition law procedure, Microsoft will be afforded an opportunity to respond in writing to this Statement of Objections within about two months. The company is also afforded an opportunity to request a hearing, which would take place after the submission of this response. Under EU procedure, the European Commission will not make a final determination until after it receives and assesses Microsoft's response and conducts the hearing, should Microsoft request one.

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[thoughtdisorder]

I'm not quite sure how bundling Internet Explorer with Windows is anti-competitive? It seems to me that any OS should come with a browser so that you can access the internet and go download Firefox, etc. if one so desires. Maybe I'm missing something.............?

 

[alexp999]

Doesnt OSX come with Safari? Isnt that exactly the same scenario?

 

[DaveK]

Wow this is extremely retarded...

 

[lemonadesoda]

Idiotic EU.

Just imagine this: Windows WITHOUT IE. That means when u install windows there is nothing to give you access to the internet!!!

Coolso how can people now download ANY alternative browser.

EU commission are idiots of the biggeest kind. The people that came up with this idiotic notion should be fired. Nay, hung drawn and quartered. I can't stand how much tax we pay for those cronies. Now the recession is on, i want to see SERIOUS CUTS in EU bureaucrats and their cushy salaries and benefits.


****

I have a GREAT suggestion. MS should install an "automatic IE uninstaller" with every next windows update. If you have an "EU" copy of Windows, IE will get zapped. That way, let thousands of businesses fall on their knees and DEMAND that the commission is brought to justice!

I am just dumbfounded at their lunacy and incompetence!

 

[thoughtdisorder]

Doesnt OSX come with Safari? Isnt that exactly the same scenario?

I believe it does include Safari, which means it is the same scenario. Not sure what the EU is up to on this one.

 

[WhiteLotus]

yep read about it last night on the ol' BBC. This is very stupid. Like said before, if they remove IE... how are people going to get a different browsers when they don't have one to begin with?!?

The only thing i can think of is if they bundle Firefox etc with windows.

 

[Silverel]

These guys can smell money sitting there in Redmond. Figure they got their hands on it once, they might as well try to do it again. The worst part of it all, is while this makes no sense to anyone else, they have a chance to pull it off...

 

[alexp999]

The only thing i can think of is if they bundle Firefox etc with windows.

Over Bill Gates dead body, lol!

 

[WhiteLotus]

Over Bill Gates dead body, lol!

it'll be the only way, unless Microsoft wants to do something drastic in the EU and lose a ton of business. Which is also never going to happen.

Personally i hope Microsoft find the loop hole that lets them avoid this and the EU can give what ever it is they are smoking to someone else.

 

[suraswami]

Damn it! Can Old School regular calculator manufacturers like Casio, Sharp, TI etc object M$ in having a built in Calculator in their OS?

 

[Lillebror]

The only thing they have to do, is to make it OPTIONAL to install it

 

[speedpc]

Wow this is extremely retarded...

Agree !!!!

 

[alexp999]

I think I know why they are doing this. The EU need something to help pay of the banks!
They obviously thought I know, lets sue MS again.
Its ridiculous, but who is enforcing the law enforcers?

 

[oli_ramsay]

This is the most retarded thing ever, without IE nobody would have any internet access when they first install their OS. These morons should be fired (out of a cannon into space).

 

[alexp999]

These morons should be fired (out of a cannon into space at the sun).

Fixed! j/k

 

[DrPepper]

Soon windows won't come with a gui in europe because it is anti competitive. I don't think microsoft are trying to eliminate the competition its more that the competition isn't anywhere good enough to compete with microsoft hence their massive marketshare.

 

[El Fiendo]

I have a GREAT suggestion. MS should install an "automatic IE uninstaller" with every next windows update. If you have an "EU" copy of Windows, IE will get zapped. That way, let thousands of businesses fall on their knees and DEMAND that the commission is brought to justice!

I am just dumbfounded at their lunacy and incompetence!

Agree fully. I just want to once see a official statement that reads:

"You guys are ****ing retarded. Seriously. The amount of fail that spews forth from your mouths casts a shadow of doubt over the perception of intelligence from your respective countries. Your citizens don't deserve you sullying their name. Please pull your heads out of your ***es in whatever circle jerk-esque ring you guys have set up and please think before bothering us again. After all, we don't enjoy wasting time on you."

 

[zithe]

The problem that keeps coming up is what the commission believes to be anti-competitive practices, being that Microsoft is bundling its own software with Windows instead of offering them separately.

Then ban Windows from existence. It's a piece of software.

 

[mtosev]

IE really sucks. i only use it when a do a install of windows to download FF or Chrome.

i also donated 10usd to Mozilla.

 

[npp]

The only thing they have to do, is to make it OPTIONAL to install it

I think Lillebror is the only one who got the point here. The option to install IE or not should be there, no matter how retarded it may seem to install an os without a browser. It's like buying a phone without a sim card - it's almost completely useless that way, but you have the possibility of chosing the service provider that best suits your needs. You needn't buy the sim card from the same store - just as you needn't download your browser from the same os, or even the same computer - as simple as that. Of course, it would be easier to get both things straight out of the box, but there are always people who would do it the other way, and it's their right to do so.

 

[Dark_Webster]

I only agree with a option to remove IE. If it wasn't installed at all, how could you get another browser?

 

[alexp999]

Maybe MS should do a really lite version of IE, just enough to get you on internet and choose what browser you want, then they make full version as part of the Windows Live Suite?
IIRC, IE is just an extension of explorer.exe anyway.

Many progs need the basic IE code to run anyway, this way it could keep everyone happy.

 

[lemonadesoda]

Personally, this is what I think:

1./ EU officials should be given the source code of an open browser.

2./ They should BE FORCED to sit down at every new PC and type the source code in by hand... since they cant download it because there is no internet browser, or if there is one, they cant use it because it goes against their silly bureaucracy. Bring it on a USB stick? NO. Because that is anticompetitive to allow MS USB drivers to be used to install a competitor product.

RETARDS. TIMEWASTERS. NUMBSKULLS.

3./ After the EU official has typed in the source code, if the browser now works, great. If not, the owner of the PC has the right to tortue the EU official idiot for the same amount of time that it took him to type in the source code.

OH LOOK. What a nice way to create jobs and solve unemployment.

 

[newtekie1]

I really hate the EU. They fight MS for doing this, but leave the others. No other OS comes without a browser. Apple bundles there browser with OSX, and evern Linux Distro I have ever used comes with Konqueror or Firefox.

How is it anti-competitive? Microsoft is litterally making $0 money off IE, they bundle it solely to add functionality to the OS. They are not preventing anyone from using a different browser, you do not have to uninstall IE to use a different browser.

It is true that most people use IE simply because it is what comes with Windows. However, these are the same people that would be totally lost if the OS came with no browser at all. They wouldn't have a clue how to get onto the internet if the OS had no browser at all.

The only way I can see this as being anti-competitive, is if Microsoft locked out other Browsers, which they do not. They don't need an option to uninstall IE, or even an option to not install it. If the person doesn't want to use it, then they simply don't use it.

Oh, and at the end of all this, when Microsoft finally does comply and release a version without IE. Microsoft will name it in a way that tells the consumer that IE has been removed, and the EU will tell Microsoft they can't call it that...Just like with the Media Player BS.