Microsoft Appeals Against the Record 899 Mln Euro EU Fine

[malware]

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.

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[hat]

95% control of the market... it's not microsoft's fault that the mac sucks
I just don't understand why they can't just pay the damn money though. They have like 50bil already...

 

[Wile E]

I hope MS wins the appeal. They shouldn't have been fined for protecting their intellectual property.

 

[hat]

If I was MS I wouldn't waste my time. I would just give them the damn money. Then fart in thier general direction. But yeah I hope they win the appeal too.

 

[Triprift]

They shoudnt have to pay a cent in my view they have every right not to share there code with rivals in my view.

 

[DaedalusHelios]

I hope MS wins the appeal. They shouldn't have been fined for protecting their intellectual property.

I agree. Its clearly just the EU skimming off the top.

 

[hat]

Why is the EU doing this anyway? Isn't thier job to prevent wars and shit? I don't see any dudes running around with body armor that says Microsoft on it...

 

[DaedalusHelios]

Why is the EU doing this anyway? Isn't thier job to prevent wars and shit? I don't see any dudes running around with body armor that says Microsoft on it...

No.....

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.

 

[Triprift]

Its the tall poppie thing as far as im concerned hat ms are the dominent player in os game and everyone wants to tear them down. The same with anyone else whos got the majority market share.

 

[sam0t]

Its not EU's fault that they try to obey the law and pursue these things while US stopped doing so long ago.

 

[Wile E]

Its not EU's fault that they try to obey the law and pursue these things while US stopped doing so long ago.

That's not the point. The US doesn't pursue MS on this because there is no laws against protecting your own intellectual property in the US. MS's code is proprietary, and the US laws respect that. The EU's laws are retarded for trying to make them release proprietary code.

 

[sam0t]

This whole thing depends much from the point of view, and thus, is quite impossible to argue over. Seen pretty heated discussions about this issue in the past and not once have I seen it lead to anything really constructive. It does not help that most people intending the discussions are all feeling and zero knowledge types, that includes me also. One must admit that the law and byrocratic mechanics behind this case are quite immense and complex. To me this is just one of those many issues that commoners can pick up and start throwing dirt over Internet pond while not understanding the real issue at all.

Neither side is willing to back up, but somehow I fail to see this ending happily for M$ in any case :/

 

[Wile E]

This whole thing depends much from the point of view, and thus, is quite impossible to argue over. Seen pretty heated discussions about this issue in the past and not once have I seen it lead to anything really constructive. It does not help that most people intending the discussions are all feeling and zero knowledge types, that includes me also. One must admit that the law and byrocratic mechanics behind this case are quite immense and complex. To me this is just one of those many issues that commoners can pick up and start throwing dirt over Internet pond while not understanding the real issue at all.

Neither side is willing to back up, but somehow I fail to see this ending happily for M$ in any case :/

Hmmm, well that's a post I can't really argue with at all. lol. Good post.

 

[Basard]

I'd spend the billion on a small army to take out the EU... mua haha.

 

[Black Panther]

Weellll... now if the EU wins the case, and gives that 899 million Euros to Malta.... that would be 2300 Euros for each of us citizens... I wonder if they've thought of doing so...

 

[xylomn]

Its all a matter of perspective. The code the EU wanted releasing was not code the damage the position of Microsoft directly but was to ensure fair competition in the market. These laws were in place when Microsoft entered the European market and as such in making the decision to enter this market are themselves bound by those laws. Just because their main offices are based outside europe doesn't mean they only adhere to American law and not to the laws of the places they chose to do business.

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.

 

[Fragman]

I can only say one thing M$ needs to be banned from EU nothing ells they never obay EU law enyway

All Power to the EU

 

[paybackdaman]

Its all a matter of perspective. The code the EU wanted releasing was not code the damage the position of Microsoft directly but was to ensure fair competition in the market. These laws were in place when Microsoft entered the European market and as such in making the decision to enter this market are themselves bound by those laws. Just because their main offices are based outside europe doesn't mean they only adhere to American law and not to the laws of the places they chose to do business.

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.

If that's the case...then M$ has no right to complain. But as stated earlier...why don't they just pay EU?

 

[Morgoth]

i would say stop selling retail in eu and only schip by order
i prefer to buy stuff in us then in eu cus i need to pay 15-20% tax on hardware/software :S

 

[btarunr]

I hope MS wins the appeal. They shouldn't have been fined for protecting their intellectual property.

The EU has had a history of playing fissures in Microsoft's e-ass.

Right, Why don't they knock Intel to open up their designs as well? Defending trade-secrets and intellectual property is no crime.

 

[candle_86]

problem is more global than just Europe, many of these compaines are headquatered elsewhere, they are simply using th EU to access the MS code in the EU, then they can use it free of charge in anything they want. MS shouldn't have to bow down to the EU, no one should to be honest. They are more corrupt than any middle easter dictatorship could ever dream of being.

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

 

[Morgoth]

i agree but not with jacking up that price..
how mutch does a copy of vista ultimate 64bit cost in US? here it cost 300 euro

 

[mdm-adph]

That's not the point. The US doesn't pursue MS on this because there is no laws against protecting your own intellectual property in the US. MS's code is proprietary, and the US laws respect that. The EU's laws are retarded for trying to make them release proprietary code.

Well, the US did pursue MS on matters like this, at least until the Bush administration came to power and decided to drop the punishment against MS. You agree with Bush on any other points, or just on the Microsoft ruling?

 

[bassmasta]

lol it costs less than 300 canadian dollars here.

 

[xylomn]

problem is more global than just Europe, many of these compaines are headquatered elsewhere, they are simply using th EU to access the MS code in the EU, then they can use it free of charge in anything they want. MS shouldn't have to bow down to the EU, no one should to be honest. They are more corrupt than any middle easter dictatorship could ever dream of being.

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

While i accept the EU is not free of corruption as with power comes corruption I somewhat think you are judging it a little too harshly in comparison to dictatorships. It also seems very narrow minded that you associate the middle-east directly with dictatorships, there are and have been many dictatorships outside the middle-east.

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.