Neowin.net - Microsoft may face EU fine process within weeks

Microsoft may face EU fine process within weeks

Posted by malebolgia on 20 May 2005 - 21:50 · 79 comments & 2238 views

Microsoft Corp. now has only weeks left until the European Commission decides whether to take steps toward fining it up to $5 million a day, a Commission spokesman said on Friday. "Within a matter of weeks, rather than months, we will have to decide whether we are satisfied that they are complying with the remedies to our satisfaction," spokesman Jonathan Todd said.

"And if they're not, we'll have to decide whether we'll begin the proceedings to begin daily fines. But we have not reached that stage." The Commission, which polices competition in the 25-nation European Union, fined the world's leading software company a record 497 million euros ($654.9 million) on March 24, 2004, and ordered it to change the way it does business.

News source: Reuters

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#1 Posted by Gowcra on 20 May 2005 - 22:11: Poor Ms

#2 Posted by Dark_INk on 20 May 2005 - 22:14: ms needs to fine the eu- this is bull****

#3 Posted by rm20010 on 20 May 2005 - 22:14

QUOTE

The Commission, which polices competition in the 25-nation European Union

Policing my ass. What has MS done this time that punishes them with this $5 million/day fine?

If they're still after that bundling-WMP-with-WinXP crap I think this has strayed away from this 'fair competition' stuff.

#4 Posted by nic on 20 May 2005 - 22:17: looks like there is about to be a shake down.

#5 Posted by SquareSoft0 on 20 May 2005 - 22:40: All this money, wonder where it all went. They most certainly wouldn't pocket it all, and get a taste for fining Microsoft.

(1 reply) #6 Posted by pre on 20 May 2005 - 22:40: Go the EU. Microsoft deserve it...

(1 reply) #7 Posted by zaggy on 20 May 2005 - 22:42: The EU are making Microsoft a favor, they just don't know it yet. They are actually making everyone a favor. Microsoft doesn't need anti-competative tactics they're products are good enough and can find a place on the market just fine. They need even more R&D and better and newer offerings. This is the way they came to be that big, this is the only way they will stay.

(2 replies) #8 Posted by cybershark on 20 May 2005 - 23:17: I'm not surprised at this. The EU is run so inefficiently, they need to find money somewhere.

#9 Posted by soldier1st on 20 May 2005 - 23:28: eilegz: don't be an idiot,if ms are complying then there is no need to fine them but if they are not because of valid reasons then give them time to do so then decide to take the eu side or whatever side(taking sides is not smart,any1 with sense knows that)

(3 replies) #10 Posted by Mattimeo on 20 May 2005 - 23:48: The EU needs this money you guys! How can Microsoft have millions and millions of dollars and a government just stand around and do nothing?!?! I mean.....600 million will only feed the EU only so far. 5 million a day will help pay for people who need government unemployment payments since they don't want to work! I mean...be compassionate here!!!

*If you didnt catch the heavy sarcasm, this was a joke*

#11 Posted by emel on 20 May 2005 - 23:54: wtf. they are thinking.. charge a company $5MIL a day?.. MS should shove of the xp starter edition in EU's ass.. I bet most EU politicians dont even knwo how to install a media player if they dont have out of the box video playback..

(1 reply) #12 Posted by ltworf on 20 May 2005 - 23:55: My question is how can they force them to pay the fine if the impose it? One MS might have European Offices, but they are not a European company. They wouldnt not be able to force MS to pull their product of the shelves, that woudl cause an uproar with European citizens. So the way I see they can impose all the fines they want, but just because they do doesnt mean MS has to pay them.

(1 reply) #13 Posted by Daugirdas on 21 May 2005 - 00:37: 5 mln a day - way too little. Should be 100mln a day or more

screw these poor *******s

#14 Posted by Phoenix56 on 21 May 2005 - 01:18: I feel real sorry about Bill Gates personal CPA & Lawer to not see this coming !

IMHO, Microsoft should have not gone and backstabed its customers, its LOYAL customers, You really have to take everything with a grain of salt tho !

(5 replies) #15 Posted by slimy on 21 May 2005 - 02:24: fuk that ****, ms should just pull out of eu for good. no selling ms products in europe till the assholes change their mind

#16 Posted by DJ Prem on 21 May 2005 - 04:56: the EU is just pathetic

#17 Posted by plasmix on 21 May 2005 - 06:34: goodwork

(4 replies) #18 Posted by mr_skrilla on 21 May 2005 - 06:54: fck the EU. They can **** off

(2 replies) #19 Posted by imtoomuch on 21 May 2005 - 07:32: The US should fine some way to legally fine a European company $5 million a day. Not just for payback, but to show the retarded heads of the EU that $5 million a day is way too much for a fine. They're doing this for the money and no other good reason. Monopolies should exist in some areas, such as cable and power companies. Computer OSs should also be a monopoly area. Software would be outrageously expensive if companies had to code their software to work on a dozen or more OSes. They comsumer would lose out.

#20 Posted by ssb on 21 May 2005 - 07:43: EU only wants money, they know nothing but making commissions, say "big" words and asking others to respect those fools.
BTW I live in EU but I hate their f***ing policies.

#21 Posted by Dark_INk on 21 May 2005 - 08:08: ms should pull out of europe completely.
the riots that would ensue would destroy the eu commish

(4 replies) #22 Posted by rIaHc3 on 21 May 2005 - 08:08: They should seriously pull their products OFF of EU's countries' shelves. This is stupid and just plain robbing money from Microsoft. A damn shame.

#23 Posted by Mathiasdm on 21 May 2005 - 08:12: "The fine permitted is up to 5 percent of a company's daily worldwide turnover." (Source: the article)

In other words, Microsoft is not paying much at all. So stop feeling sorry for the biggest monopoly in the world.

They've had lots of time to comply to the EU's question.

(3 replies) #24 Posted by skase on 21 May 2005 - 08:47: If EU wins, I would be curious to see if MS keeps up its charity donations.

(1 reply) #25 Posted by INet-Master on 21 May 2005 - 12:46: so the only way is, that ms stop windows in EU. stay in amerika and every think is great.

(2 replies) #26 Posted by unkn0wnvariable on 21 May 2005 - 14:39

Some of the comments here are truely hillarious.

Let's not forget that this is all about MS removing Windows Media Player from Windows because apparently it's stopping people using other products like Real Player and Quicktime. Which is utter nonsense. People can and do install whatever they like on their PC's and most will just download and install Media Player anyway. Especially since you still need it for half the video streams on the net! So what exactly is the point in forcing MS to remove a component from their OS that people still need?

Quotes like this for example:

QUOTE

The decision required Microsoft to make its ubiquitous Windows operating system available without Windows Media Player, so that computer makers could buy alternative software to play films and music, from companies such as RealNetworks Inc. and Apple Computer Inc. .

Buy? How likely is that? Why would anyone buy an alternative when they can still install Media Player themselves for free? Especially when you consider that the main reason for the lower useage of those two given alternatives is that they've not very good.

Anyone who lives in the EU should have a good understanding of some of the BS that the EC spout already, this is just another example of something pointless that they're doing.

#26.1 Posted by tapo on 21 May 2005 - 18:37

QUOTE

Especially since you still need it for half the video streams on the net!

But why is that?

Because content producers can depend on Windows Media Player being there. So, they use Microsoft's closed WMA and WMV file formats for distribution. This really, really hurts Apple and Real because they can't insure that their software is bundled on the user's machine.

So Microsoft is depending on the lack of user awareness or care to push Media Player, and it's formats. Since Media Player uses it's own formats (WMA, WMV) over open standards, Microsoft is using it's existing monopoly on Windows to force their way into a new market.

This is monopoly abuse, and is illegal.

Incase you're wondering, Apple's Quicktime is in the clear on Macs because they don't have a monopoly, and Quicktime is only an open container format. Linux distributions are too, because they only play open codecs.

Last edited by 49636 on 21 May 2005 - 18:47

#26.2 Posted by unkn0wnvariable on 22 May 2005 - 16:51: Yes, that's how the situation arose originally, but the situation we have now is that people need WMP and this isn't the solution that's going to solve the problem.

The problem is now that WMV streams are in abundance so people need WMP to watch them (well they don't, but the general public tend to just take the easiest option). None of the ordinary Joe's out there with their home PC's are going to stop using WMP is if means they can't access certain content on the net, so they'll just download it and install it if it's not bundled. So they'll still be able to watch the streams, and the content pushers will just continue to push it in the same formats they always have done, meaning that people will still need WMP to watch them. So this will ultimately acheive nothing.

I don't doubt that it's uncompetetive or that something needs to be done about it, but this solution just isn't going to make any difference.

A better solution would have been to make MS open up their format so that the other media players could support it instead. THEN people would be able to use any of them instead of being forced to use certain ones for certain things.

(2 replies) #27 Posted by S7R1K3R on 21 May 2005 - 15:02: MY suggestion to MS is leave EUROPE all together. Save all that money an jus dont publish windows there. that'll teach the EU a lesson.

(6 replies) #28 Posted by mattm591 on 21 May 2005 - 17:48: Why does such a large percentage of you seem to be pro M$. This is the best thing to ever happen to them, the EU made an excellent decision and I hope they get lotsa cash offa M$. It's about time someone did. Hopefully they can help loosen the grip they hold on the marketplace and make it easier for people to use alternate OS's.

(1 reply) #29 Posted by Tommy2k4 on 21 May 2005 - 18:06: Is it not possible to sue Apple for bundling quicktime with OSX? Forgive me if stupid question..

(1 reply) #30 Posted by .:YodaGP:. on 21 May 2005 - 19:20: EU Sucks. I hate the EU. ****ers.

(1 reply) #31 Posted by mircleman on 22 May 2005 - 02:44: amazing at the utter idiot people and call themselves informed.

#32 Posted by mircleman on 22 May 2005 - 07:26

#33 Posted by edgefield on 22 May 2005 - 12:11: ha ha brilliant.

#34 Posted by bobzy on 23 May 2005 - 06:50: ha ha microsoft.

(3 replies) #35 Posted by Zerosignull on 23 May 2005 - 11:32: If most of the anti EU people actually stoped complaining about the EU and actually read the news lately about this matter then they would realise this is,in fact, not about the WMP less version of windows. Its the opening up off the hidden API's in windows that MS use for their own products to help them intergrate with windows better. MS have been very restrictive in their licensing and it is not acceptable to the EU decision.

Also for the informed, or should i say less then, the full normal version of windows xp is still being alowed to be sold in the EU. The requirement was that their was to be a striped down version of windows for sale without WMP.

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