Microsoft's EU deadline looms

Microsoft must submit on Tuesday its final proposal for complying with an antitrust order from the European Commission--or face fines that could reach millions of dollars a day.

The Commission, which polices competition in the 25-nation European Union, fined the U.S. software giant 497 million euros ($613 million) on March 24, 2004.

Microsoft also was ordered to make its ubiquitous Windows operating system available without the Windows Media Player, so that computer makers can buy alternative software to play video and audio from competitors such as RealNetworks and Apple Computer. The software giant must also share information with rival makers of servers used to run printers and retrieve files, so that Microsoft's system will work with software products from other companies.

European antitrust regulators, who have been at odds with Microsoft over its efforts to comply with its order, hope to make a decision by July 20 as to whether Microsoft has submitted an acceptable proposal for compliance, said Jonathan Todd, a spokesman for the European Union. That date is the last meeting of the European Commission before its summer recess.

Microsoft must submit its final proposal--including a copy of Windows sans the Media Player--to European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes by 3 p.m. Pacific time (midnight in Brussels, Belgium). Kroes will then share that information with third parties in the case.

"We will give them a copy of Microsoft Windows without the Media Player and a copy of the proposed terms...Their input will be taken into account on whether Microsoft is in full compliance or not with the March 2004 order," Todd said, citing an example of how Microsoft competitors and industry players will participate in the EU's decision.

Kroes will either accept or reject Microsoft's proposal. If she rejects it, she will ask the full commission to issue a decision to impose a fine of up to 5 percent of daily global sales, Todd said.

That would be a first for the European Union's antitrust regulators. Before May 1, the harshest penalty that could be imposed was 5,000 euros ($6,179) per day, Todd said.

Kroes met with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in May to discuss the situation. "We made a deal that before the end of the month we would reach an agreement. We are waiting for the Microsoft people to do their homework," Kroes told Reuters last week.

Microsoft has said it working hard to cooperate with the Commission.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Should Microsoft Say No To The EU!

To the extent that Mr. Gates as well as Microsoft's CEO Mr. Steve Ballmer are not known to be international legal luminaries and here it is from what this article appears to be reporting that they are the one who are in negotiations with "one" European Competition Commissioner by the name of Neelie Kroes telling these guys that "The company must also share information with rival makers of servers used to run printers and retrieve files, an issue known as interoperability"... an issue that has already been resolved in US Courts. Microsoft being a us company. The question is - could the EU try the same rules with a Chinese company. Perhaps at hindsight, with so many US Military Bases slated to be closed over the next few years Microsoft rather that the present focus on the "Corporate Jet On Demand" should ask the EU to provide all the "blue prints" for the failed "Concorde Project" and work with the US and other Governments outside the EU (perhaps Russia) to use any of these appropriate bases to re-launch the Concorde in direct competition against the EU's AirBus 380 in retaliation to this preposterous demand by the EU and threat to take $5 million daily out of the US economy! Should Microsoft allow this case to be a precident and should they not refer this matter to the World Intellectual Property Organization et cetera!

Oops!

Pardon the corrections with regards to the above comment. They are the "ones" and "precedent". This sort of thing happens when one is "rushing" to do other things... I suppose. BBQ time! Thanks ;-)

[Andrew J Glina]

Failure

"Failed Concorde Project"? Sounds more like the failed Boeing SST project! The Concorde flew and made money. It may not have been sold as much as planned (which is the fault of the USA boycotting it), but it was a reliable aircraft for 20 years.

[open-mind]

Break The Law, Go To Jail

Unless you're Microsoft that is. Then you can break anti-trust laws
all you want, and nothing ever seems to happen.

I predct they'll slip out of this jam too ... somehow.

But if they get fined ... no big deal. They'll just raise their
Windows/Office prices a little to compensate. That's easy to do
when you have a monopoly.

[TomMariner]

Microsoft Tariff

Granted, Microsoft is a big arrogant target, but this is largely Europe looking for an advantage ala AirBus. Although Redmond is certainly involved, Washington DC also has to weigh in with equal counter sanctions against European-based software firms should the "Microsoft Tariff" go through.

[Michael Grogan]

Against whom?

I've never heard of a Europeasn software company that employs monopolistic practices. Who, exactly, should Washington go after? And why should they punish the Europeans for doing the job our DOJ dropped the ball on?

[Okie Rick]

EU - Invent your own OS

I realize Microsoft is is business to broaden it's OS and Applications user base, but at what cost? To be held hostage over supposed 'interoperability issues' that may exist only rarely and occasionally that, by all rights, should be the responsibility of the product (hardware or software) that doesn't 'operate correctly' with MS software.

I haven't read anywhere that Apple, Linux, BeOS, etc., are being looked at as alternatives.

Perhaps the EU needs to write it's own OS and Applications.

[open-mind]

Microsoft Wouldn't Allow It

<<I haven't read anywhere that Apple, Linux, BeOS, etc., are
being looked at as alternatives.>>

Because Microsoft has several monopolies that are preventing
these "alternatives" from really being alternatives. For example:

BeOS: was a great OS for Intel ... much better than Windows (a
monopoly). But no hardware manufacturer would license it,
fearing retaliation from Microsoft. So it's dead now ... not an
alternative.

OS X: It's a great OS ... much better than Windows. That's why I
use it. But one of the reasons Apple won't port to Intel is
because Microsoft might retaliate by killing the Mac version of
MS Office (another Monopoly). So it's not an alternative, at least
on Intel hardware.

Linux: A great OS ... better than Windows in many ways. But not
really practical as a desktop alternative because Microsoft won't
port Office or IE (both monopolies) to Linux. So it's not an
alternative because it lacks these applications.

Etc: There is no et cetera. That's because Microsoft won't allow
any of them.

According to the US Government, Microsoft is a monopoly.
Nothing wrong with that. But when you use an established
monopoly to manipulate and dominate other markets, that's
illegal. Microsoft has been doing this for many years.

[Catgic]

Kroes to Kackle on M$ Compliance 07202005

Whoa, Neelie, let our Redmond ?puterware programmers and purveyors compete Yankee Doodle capitalist style across-the-pond in the land of VII Horns & X Heads. The Flying Dutch-Frau & European Competition Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, wouldn?t know capitalist competition if she saw it, nor would any of her EC Kroe-bait commissioners. All Neelie, Mario Monti before her, and the assorted Fritzes, Francoises, Francescos and other EU social democratic commission bureaucrats know is Microsoft is a U.S., Cash Rich ?USDA Prime? Cow.

$613M USD in Microsoft stakeholders ?$TEAK$? plus, come July 20, 2005, possibly $Millions USD per day more and counting. Where are the still invisible US Federal Trade Commission, Dept. of Commerce and U.S. DOS in all this?

Check out this oxymoronic European news item from a month ago: ?The first European Competition Day was held in Luxembourg on 3 May 2005.? European & Competition used in the same sentence? Are they for real?

Microsoft?s real problem is all their wares are ?softly? MADE IN THE USA not EUROPA. If Europe NO LIKEM M$ Bill?s Zero & One ?interoperability issue plagued? Bugware, let them saddle up the Open Systems Penguin and ride him across the cyber-ice flows. Me Maw used to say, ?No money, no funny.? The corollary to Me Maw?s sage saw is ?M$ Money, beaucoup EU funny.? As long as Bronco Billy and his Founded-in-1975 Redmond Rascals have a single M$ USD $$$ Billy Buck in a Seattle bank, EU carrion will be clicking their beaks to bring M$ Billy Buck$ into EUC coffers under the guise of MEGA-$IZED fines for ?unfair, monopolistic and anticompetitive? practices. Trust me the EUC likes ?Free-Other-People?s-Money? as much as I do. Neelie and her EC Commissioners will continue to opt to milk Microsoft and any other Yankee cash cow they can chase into the EUC ?Anti-Kompetition? milking barn.

The EU?s capitalist track record is abysmal. Remember the proposed GE/Honeywell Merger. On July 1, 2001, EU Kompetition Komrades entered from stage LEFT crying foul waving their Socialist RED anti-competition flags to put the kibosh on that U.S. capitalist M&A attempt. The U.S. response to it?silencio. Karl Marx would be proud of his Kast of EU Komrades.

Where was my rich Uncle $ammy Bucks back in 2001, and where is he now as the EU Barons & Baronesses of International EU Business Bureaucracy continue to impede, block, fine and/or drub Microsoft, GE/Honeywell, Boeing/McDonnell Douglas, AOL/Time-Warner?other U.S. Biz A/Biz B M&As and capitalist competition. Why is, and has been, our reportedly ?business friendly? Republican President and Republican Congress apparently asleep at the helm and oars of the U.S. Ship of State.

Where is the U.S. Business and Government outrage? Where are the U.S. counter sanctions against European-based firms should the EU "Capitalist Tax" on Microsoft, and other U.S. firms, be left to stand and continue on in a EU vs. U.S. Business-As-Usual manner?

Am I the last Free-Competition/Free-Trade loving U.S. Techno-Capitalist left standing on the planet? JP B-)

No

Rave on brother!The free market always works and always will.