EU Fines Microsoft Record $1.3 Billion

[Axeus]

European Union fines Microsoft record $1.3 billion - Feb. 27, 2008



World's largest software supplier fined for charging rivals too much to make compatible computer programs.

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- The European Union fined Microsoft Corp. a record $1.3 billion on Wednesday for charging rivals too much for software information.
EU regulators said the company charged "unreasonable prices" until last October to software developers who wanted to make products compatible with the Windows desktop operating system.
Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) immediately said that these fines were about past issues that have been resolved and the company was now working under new principles to make its products more open.
The fine is the largest ever for a single company and the first time the EU has penalized a business for failing to obey an antitrust order.
The penalty far outweighs a a March 2004 decision that fined Microsoft $613 million and ordered it to share communications information with rivals within 120 days, taking an appeal to an EU court that it lost last September.
The EU alleged that Microsoft withheld crucial interoperability information for desktop PC software - where it is the world's leading supplier - to squeeze into a new market and damage rivals that make programs for workgroup servers that help office computers connect to each other and to printers and faxes.
The company delayed complying with the EU order for three years, the EU said, only making changes on Oct. 22 to the patent licenses it charges companies that need data to help them make software that works with Microsoft.
Microsoft had initially set a royalty rate of 3.87% of a licensee's product revenues for patents and demanded that companies looking for communication information - which it said was highly secret - pay 2.98% of their products' revenues.
The EU complained last March that these rates were unfair. Under threat of fines, Microsoft two months later reduced the patent rate to 0.7% and the information license to 0.5% - but only in Europe, leaving the worldwide rates unchanged.
The EU's Court of First Instance ruling that upheld regulators' views changed the company's mind again in October when it offered a new license for interoperability information for a flat fee of $14,000 and an optional worldwide patent license for a reduced royalty of 0.4%

[downphoenix]

I think it is total BS.

Europeans are hating on the 360 because they are hating on Microsoft.

They are also trying to capitalize off of Microsoft making the only operating system that truly matters in the home computing world.

[Axeus]

Originally Posted by downphoenix

I think it is total BS.

Europeans are hating on the 360 because they are hating on Microsoft.

They are also trying to capitalize off of Microsoft making the only operating system that truly matters in the home computing world.

So you're saying that Microsoft is allowed to break the law?

[Icemage]

Actually this has absolutely nothing to do with the Xbox 360.

I haven't read up extensively on the EU's anti-trust actions against Microsoft, but this sounds like the latest salvo from the EU to punish Microsoft for non-compliance against the charges of monopolistic price gouging.

[Axeus]

Off-Topic Discussion then?

[lol_pc]

I don't really care since Microsoft has too much money they don't know what to do with

[Fyrus]

But this really has nothing to do with 360.

[Romanc]

Originally Posted by downphoenix

I think it is total BS.

Europeans are hating on the 360 because they are hating on Microsoft.

They are also trying to capitalize off of Microsoft making the only operating system that truly matters in the home computing world.

Wrong. It's Microsoft who has been trying to capitalize off the fact that Windows is the dominant operating system in the home computing world. Extortionate licensing fees when you are in a near monopoly situation is illegal in reference to antitrust laws.

Originally Posted by Fyrus

But this really has nothing to do with 360.

Sure it hasn't. That's why it is in the PC section. k?

[PirateThom]

Originally Posted by Romanc

Sure it hasn't. That's why it is in the PC section. k?

That's because I moved it here...

[User Name?]

Originally Posted by downphoenix

I think it is total BS.

Europeans are hating on the 360 because they are hating on Microsoft.

They are also trying to capitalize off of Microsoft making the only operating system that truly matters in the home computing world.

teh fouck??