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EU antitrust case: Does the EU hate Microsoft?
I'm surprised at the amount of hateful comments against the EU after it chose to enforce its competition laws in the case against Microsoft. The EU is apparently Socialist, Communist, or at least hates companies with success, or was that just American companies?
Ignoring for a moment the fact that most companies the EC is dealing with for violation of European Competition Law are European companies, let's look at just how reliable the claims about the EU having it in for Microsoft are.
They are not very reliable, it turns out:
Ignoring for a moment the fact that most companies the EC is dealing with for violation of European Competition Law are European companies, let's look at just how reliable the claims about the EU having it in for Microsoft are.
They are not very reliable, it turns out:
So there you have it. Going with what Microsoft is lobbying them to do seems to be a strange case of "European bias against Microsoft, and that's why they started the antitrust case"...David Hammerstein, ex-Member of European Parliament for the Greens, tweeted last week: 'SOS to everyone as sources confirm that Kroes is about to eliminate "open standards" policy from EU digital agenda; Kroes has been under intense lobbying pressure from Microsoft to get rid of interoperability and open source goals of EU.'
Readers' comments 8
Left under the original article, as archived.
About this article
| Published in | A Journal from Behind the Trenches |
|---|---|
| Date | March 31, 2010 |
| Author | Haavard |
| Tags | ec, antitrust, europe, eu, competition, microsoft |
| Original | Internet Archive |
ZotlanWednesday, March 31, 2010 4:29:15 PM
Assuming the rumor is correct.
João EirasWednesday, March 31, 2010 5:05:22 PM
About Kroes, I find that story very hard to digest given that it was Kroes herself that has lead most investigations against Microsoft and a fellow parliament representative even asked whether Microsoft should be removed from public procurement http://www.heide-ruehle.de/heide2007/media/doc/1207747685964.pdf
But if you want to speak of Microsoft's dirty tactics, this is another interesting article http://boycottnovell.com/2010/01/14/brussels-coverage-upls/ They are lobbying to have also software patents in Europe. But software patents have already been voted no.
Or for a history of the entire novel beween the EU and Microsoft
http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/174096756/m/550009561931?r=387008961931#387008961931
To summarize, Microsoft was, is and will continue to be a lobbyist troll, which business model is not to innovate or develop new technology, but to force governments and institutions to be dependent on their mediocre software.
endless loveWednesday, March 31, 2010 6:09:59 PM
Cutting SpoonWednesday, March 31, 2010 9:38:39 PM
One may posit that the fines against large companies are not damaging enough. Intel paid its latest penalties in cash, immediately.
CharlieThursday, April 1, 2010 3:55:39 AM
Libertad RiveraMonday, April 5, 2010 3:03:28 PM
CharlieWednesday, April 7, 2010 1:39:29 PM
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/04/eu-browser-ballot-sometimes-hidden-by-ie-wizard.ars?comments=1#comments-bar
Cutting SpoonWednesday, April 7, 2010 3:50:14 PM