“The European Union’s antitrust authority confirmed yesterday that it’s analyzing a fresh set of ‘informal complaints’ against Microsoft over its business practices,” Simon Taylor reports for Macworld UK. “These complaints by industry rivals are separate to those which led the European Commission to impose a record fine on Microsoft and order it to unbundle Media Player from Windows and ensure interoperability with its workgroup server software, according to a spokesman.”
“‘The European Commission has received a number of informal complaints about Microsoft,’ said Jonathan Todd, a spokesman for the European Commissioner for Competition Neelie Kroes, in a prepared statement,” Taylor reports. “The Commission was in the process of analyzing the complaints, he continued, and would not take a decision whether to open a new case against the company before this analysis was complete. The Commission’s statement comes in response to an interview with Kroes in the New York Times, in which the Commissioner suggested that she would take action against the company over these complaints. She said in the interview: ‘We’re not going to wait and do nothing.'”
Full article here.
The New York Times’ article (free registration required) here.
MacDailyNews Take: One has to wonder if chairs are sailing and f bombs are being dropped once again in Redmond today.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Microsoft’s Bill Gates: ‘We’ve been f—ed by China’ – September 06, 2005
Chair hurling Microsoft CEO Ballmer: ‘I’m going to f—ing kill Google’ – September 03, 2005
EU rejects Microsoft’s antitrust abuse oversight plan – March 23, 2005
EU court dismisses Microsoft’s plea for appeal ‘in its entirety’ – December 22, 2004
European Union will not let Microsoft off the hook in antitrust action – August 07, 2003
at least the european governments aren’t sleeping.
oh and is this first?
Yes yoh, you idiot… you are first.
Sigh.
Congratulations on your first post!
Your check is in the mail, along with a new PowerMac, the Nobel Prize for MacArts, and a framed picture of yourself.
You have to wonder about these ‘complaints’. MSFT’s reputation (much deserved) could be attracting frivolous complaints from firms that just can’t compete, no matter how ‘level’ the playing field.
Don’t be confused by the above statement, I’d like nothing more than see Gates & Co. banished to a room, with only a Wintel to communicate with the rest of the world (and no tech support).
Stop ‘considering’ and start punishing
“One has to wonder if chairs are sailing and f bombs are being dropped once again in Redmond today.”
Great day to a carpenter in Redmond!
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Peace.
did i just get another pop-under from MDN?
i think i did….
makes me wonder how many Euros Billy will spend to make this suit go away ?
Oops! That should read “be a carpenter”. Butterfingers.
Peace.
I saw Bil the other day near the mall in Bellevue, he looked “physically twisted” due to stress.
I never would have believe that I would pity a billionaire but I did.
A trip to the mountain might do him good.
I wonder if The Eagles got their lyrics from such a scene
(*sigh*) Will Microsoft EVER learn?
I thought an antitrust suit was a chastity belt with matching jacket and slacks. Spiky shoes too to complete the ensemble.
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Yes but the appellant stage over the first ruling will take several will take several years. Hmmm.
I love it. Nice take MDN.
If Gates knew what was good for him he would quit and dedicate his life to philanthropy to make up for doing his best to monopolize and destroy the promise of personal computing. Or he should fund a non-profit open-source computing platform.
MDN word: sort (sort out his life and come to terms with what he has done)
Amparo
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Sister, get your mind off the gutter and your hands on the keyboard grrl.
M$ has become a major source of fun and funding for the EU. While it is nice, though, to see Gates & Co. squirm before yet another round of hearings, I wonder just how serious “a number of informal complaints” to the EU actually are…
“Informal complaints” sounds like the guy that puts the toilet paper on the little spools in the EU executive washroom bitching about reboot times or that his new Gateway won’t defrag in less than eight hours…
Marcie88: Not a grrl here but thanks for the grin just the same. :o)
MW: “never” as in never forget there’s a gutter below and a gutter above you (unless you sleep on the roof and that has it’s own inherent problems)
FIRST POST !
damn … almost !
I think they just like getting the money off their baseless antitrust arguments.
Greedy bastards….Uh-Hem Bloody basturds.
FIRST POST!!! I’m alive!!!! First post!!!!!
(bursts into crowded room…)
“Hey! I got FIRST PO…. Errr… umm… Never mind.”
(sheepisly walks out, closing door behind him.)
I don’t like M$. But I HATE the EU shakedown artist. M$ is not a monopoly there are plenty of choices – you just have to make them.
I hope the complaints were about Microsoft’s non standard website builder. Excluding everything but IE is monopolistic. Make the bastards follow web standards.