“The European Union has fined Microsoft €561 million ($733 million) for breaking a pledge to offer personal computer users a choice of Internet browsers when they install the company’s flagship Windows operating system,” Toby Sterling reports for The Associated Press. “The penalty imposed by the EU’s executive arm, the Commission, is a first for Brussels: no company has ever failed to keep its end of a bargain with EU authorities before.”
MacDailyNews Take: Welcome to dealing with Microsoft, EU. Clowns packed full of hubris.
“In 2009, Microsoft Corp. struck a broad settlement with the Commission to resolve disputes over Microsoft’s abuse of the dominance of Windows, which had spanned more than a decade,” Sterling reports. “The company agreed to pay €860 million and promised to give Windows users the option of choosing another browser rather than having Microsoft’s Internet Explorer automatically installed on their machines. But Microsoft failed to stick to the deal for some 15 million installations of Windows 7 in Europe from May 2011 until July 2012.”
Sterling reports, “For its part, Microsoft was apologetic. ‘We take full responsibility for the technical error that caused this problem and have apologized for it,’ the company said in a statement. ‘We provided the Commission with a complete and candid assessment of the situation, and we have taken steps… to help avoid this mistake — or anything similar — in the future.’ The company is required to offer consumers a choice of browsers through 2014.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: And the majority of the dwindling number of Windows sufferers stared ahead blankly, drooling slightly, as convinced as ever that “The Internet” is a blue “e.”
Microsoft cannot be trusted. Ever.
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