The European Union’s second highest court is expected to rule on Sept. 17 whether the European Commission was right in 2004 to find that Microsoft violated antitrust laws, sources familiar with the matter said. Sept. 17 is the final working day before the retirement of Court of First Instance President Bo Vesterdorf, who is presiding over the landmark case. The ruling is expected to clarify whether the European Commission can continue to pursue the case, or whether it must pull back and permit Microsoft to continue its business practices.
Hopefully some people will realise they have been handling this completely the wrong way (fighting monopolistic practices by focusing on mediaplayers?) and shins will be kicked.
Hopefully some people will realise that media players are just one minor aspect of this whole case.
I don’t know the finite details of the case, I can only speak from my own personal opinion, so I’ll stay quiet. So I’d be very interested to hear what happens, what the ruling is that come down about all this, and how it affects Microsoft’s distribution of its software.
“””
I don’t know the finite details of the case, I can only speak from my own personal opinion, so I’ll stay quiet.
“””
Well, that’s gotta be an OSNews first! 😉
-Steve
Microsoft broke the european law.
You can dance Flamenco naked around the Himalaya and that will not change.
I do not care if every person thinks that we in Europe are twisted green envious little men that attacks healthy US business.
We have laws and Microsoft broke them
All…
All time…
With gusto.
After everyone agrees ( not as an agreement, but because it is a FACT) on this, we can discuss methods and reasons of the decision.
I wrote an article a couple of years ago on this very site
http://www.osnews.com/story.php/6612/Microsofts-EU-Punishment-First…
So, I do not want to hear another trolling on us european commies again.
It is law Baby, as simple as that
Microsoft broke the european law.
No they didn’t, atleast not yet. All the EU has done is accused that the Microsoft broke law. I can’t believe as person who claims to have a doctority of law doesn’t know such a simple fact.
They appealed because they never back down until last legal possibilities are gone – they have very big war stash so they will stay in court as long as they can.
Second my though was it was done in hopes they can stroke similar deal with EC as with US DOJ. EC has been very strict about this so far and there is no sign of change.
I am quite tired of Microsoft dirty tactics. There is bigger companies in the world but no one is such bully to law and order as Microsoft is.
“
”
You sure about that? I’m pretty sure oil barrons have gone as far as threatoning to strangle a countries oil supply in order to gain their goal (be it political power or otherwise).
Edited 2007-06-07 16:37
No matter what happens, whatever punishment won’t be enough, and more antitrust cases will be coming along.
This never would have happened if Microsoft were based in the EU. Heck, knowing politicians, if Microsoft were a EU company, the US would probably be bringing them up on fictional anti-trust charges.
A note to any company that comes after Microsoft: Do your best, but be sure to let someone else be #1.
It is hard to believe that Microsoft would be behaving any better if it were based in the EU.
There are enough example of European companies violating market regulation laws and being treated accordingly, so your assumption that European companies would be ethically superior doesn’t hold.
I didn’t want to suggest that Microsoft’s behavior would change. I was just pointing out that these lawsuits are largely a result of xenophobia.
Hmm, doesn’t hold either. As I wrote, several European companies have been subjected to such cases as well.
Even companies from “powerful” countries (in the sense of begin most influencial in the EU, such as Germany, France) have been convicted if they were caught violating EU market laws.
Hmm, doesn’t hold either. As I wrote, several European companies have been subjected to such cases as well.
Even companies from “powerful” countries (in the sense of begin most influencial in the EU, such as Germany, France) have been convicted if they were caught violating EU market laws.
Rrrrrrrright. The EU has a special bug up its ass for Microsoft. Lemme hold my breath while the EU takes on European companies such as Airbus which are solely competitive due to state subsidies.
1…… 2 ….. 3 ….
See capricorn_tm’s post above. If MS stops breaking EU laws, then the EU will stop taking them to court – it’s as simple as that.
“
”
Being taken to caught doesn’t automatically mean a punishment will be administered (let alone the penalty being severe enough to hurt the company thus deterring them from future EU law violations)
Edited 2007-06-07 16:42
That’s pretty much impossible because almoust all new inventions Microsoft is doing can be in some way see breaking EU laws. This is problem with laws that doesn’t specify details but more an essence of law. Court rulings are often needed to specify laws, like in EU case of alcohol retail selling in Internet. If someone isn’t familiar with this case, it’s all about free movement of products inside EU. So far list has been changed so that this doesn’t include alcohol or cars.
Even if a guilty verdict is upheld against Microsoft – I’m still expecting the EU to bottle it and offer MS a token gesture penalty which will have little impact on MS let alone the industry MS has controlled.
I’d love to be proved wrong – in fact I actually dare the EU to make a bold statement….
Microsoft was tried and convicted in the U.S.
What was their punishment? They gave software to schools – AKA, free advertising!
I predict something similar in the E.U. – governments or schools will get free software.
But I hope not!