microsoft-eu

Microsoft, the EU fine, and a browser ballot no one missed

Editors' note: This is a guest column by Geoffrey Manne and Berin Szoka. See below for their bios.

If a tree fell in the forest, and no one noticed... the European Commission would impose a staggering fine -- and then congratulate itself for protecting consumers from falling trees. That's essentially what just happened: the Commission fined Microsoft $732 million for failing to show its "browser ballot" when users installed one of its Windows 7 updates.

In 2009, the Commission settled charges that Microsoft had monopolized the EU browser market -- even as Internet Explorer's market share … Read more

EU close to fining Microsoft, says report

The clock is ticking on Microsoft. Reuters is reporting today that regulators in Europe intend to levy a potentially hefty fine on the software company in connection with a long-running antitrust case.

Quoting a couple of people described as being "familiar with the matter," Reuters says the fine might be "significant."

Microsoft has been in hot water with the European Commission for some time. Last fall, regulators said the company reneged on a 2009 promise to give Windows consumers more choice among rival Internet browsers. The latest bit of upset has to do with Microsoft's … Read more

Europe poised to hit Microsoft over browser choice

The European Commission has reiterated plans to turn the thumbscrews on both Microsoft and Google over antitrust concerns.

European antitrust commissioner Joaquín Almunia said in a speech today in Warsaw that both "world brands" were in the Commission's sights -- Microsoft over its failure to properly offer users a choice of browser, Google over its fears the tech giant "had used its dominance in online search to foreclose advertisers and rivals."

"In the past, we have taken on companies such as Microsoft. To meet one of our concerns, the company pledged to … Read more

Microsoft likely to face hefty EU fine over browser choice 'error'

Europe's antitrust chief has sent the strongest signal yet that Microsoft faces heavy financial penalties after the software giant failed to include a "browser choice" screen for European users in the latest version of Windows 7.

In an interview with the AFP news agency, European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia reportedly said that fault had been admitted and said the European Commission needed to "react," suggesting heavy fines were on the way.

"The fault is there, it has been there for more than a year and it is clear that we need to react," … Read more

EU: Microsoft $1B antitrust penalty stands

An EU court said today that it will uphold an 899 million euro ($1.1 billion) penalty handed out in 2008 by the European Commission, but will lower it by 39 million euros ($48 million).

The European General Court, the second highest court in the EU, said today it will lower the fine to 860 million euros ($1.07 billion) following an antitrust ruling nearly five years ago.

"The General Court essentially upholds the Commission's decision imposing a periodic penalty payment on Microsoft for failing to allow its competitors access to interoperability information on reasonable terms," the … Read more

BOL 1027: What's your major smellfunction?

On today's episode, we invent a new word that we hope will show up on a show like "The Hills" sometime soon. Plus, we get fired up, make terrible jokes about monkeys controlling computers with their brains, and actually work in a tiny bit of news. For example, Apple's doing a tablet and music labels are trying to sell some new weird digital album thing. You might like the "fired up" part better.

Subscribe now: iTunes (audio) | iTunes (video) | RSS (audio) | RSS (video) EPISODE 1027

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Buzz Out Loud 972: New Zune in June?

According to the Office 10 Twitter account, Zune lovers will be happy in June. If that wasn't weird enough, they also warn you not to buy an iPhone or Palm Pre, which is probably standing orders at Microsoft. Also Natali carries knives in her sports bra quite often. Or so we have come to understand.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 972

Report: Intel to join Microsoft in EU antitrust purgatory http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/05/report-eu-readying-to-fine-intel-for-antitrust-violations.ars

Apple freezes Snow Leopard APIs http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/12/0213242

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Redmond roundup: Company files EU response

Microsoft met a deadline this week to respond to European Commission charges that its inclusion of a browser in Windows violates antitrust laws there.

In January, the European authorities filed a new complaint with a preliminary finding that Microsoft had broken the law by bundling a browser into Windows.

Microsoft's response was not made public and the company did not offer a comment, but it's fair to say the company disagrees with the finding.

The stakes are high. In addition to potential fines, Microsoft has noted in regulatory filings that European authorities may seek to force Microsoft to include rival browsers … Read more

Google wants to join EU case against Microsoft

Google wants to help the European Commission prove antitrust charges against Microsoft related to the software giant's dominance of the Web browser market.

The Web search giant, which recently released its Chrome Web browser, announced Tuesday that it is applying to be a "third party" in the European proceedings, which will entitle it to receive access to confidential documents in the case and the ability to voice objections. Sundar Pichai, a Google vice president for product management, explained the company's reasoning in a company blog:

Google believes that the browser market is still largely uncompetitive, which … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 912: Where's the sex in 'Highlander?'

That and other important questions are answered in today's show, where we're joined by John C. Dvorak in dissecting the new Facebook Terms of Service, the New Zealand blackout over copyright law, and the last-minute saving of SiriusXM. Also, give your boys the violent video games. They need them.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 912

Day one of U.S. TV transition only 114 more to go http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

Facebook’s new terms of service: “we can do anything we want with your content. Forever.” http://consumerist.com/5150175/facebooks-new-terms-of-service-we-can-do-anything-we-want-with-your-content-forever

Facebook … Read more