antitrust

Polish watchdog asks the EU to investagate Microsoft for anti-trust

Microsoft Subnet — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:09:52 -0400

A watchdog organization in Poland has reportedly asked the EU's European Commission to investigate Microsoft over its dealings with laptop makers in the region, Reuters and the Warsaw Business Journal report. The organization had been conducting an investigation over whether Microsoft was colluding with laptop makers to restrict the availability of Linux as an operating system choice.

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Google to meet antitrust queries with straight face

Google Subnet — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:06:16 -0400

To pull off Google's strategy for calming antitrust fears from its ad search deal with Yahoo, Google legal eagle David Drummond will need to present his case without cracking a smile, a difficult feat at best. According to Google's press release offered ahead of today's hearings before the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, Google's response contains the following hard-to-swallow facts, among others:

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DOJ opens formal probe into Google/Yahoo deal

Google Subnet — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:59:46 -0400

All bets are off now as Google's search ad partnership with Yahoo is being formally scrutinized by the Justice Department, according to an article in today's Washington Post. While Google and Yahoo had agreed to forestall the deal until the DOJ finished a voluntary review, the formal investigation is a red flag that signals serious antitrust concerns on the part of the DOJ. Here's what one expert quoted in the article says:

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Microsoft removed interoperability documents, Feds accuse

Microsoft Subnet — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:29:04 -0400

The court-mandated committee that is overseeing Microsoft's compliance with its federal antitrust settlement said that Microsoft has deleted some key information from its previously published protocols and is breaking its word in the process. So says a story in InformationWeek. Microsoft apparently deleted some data on its Windows protocols from its published technical documentation that others use to write Windows software, according to a report filed last week by the Technical Committee overseeing antitrust compliance.

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Windows 7 and IE8 reviewed for antitrust, but will the US rubber stamp?

Microsoft Subnet — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:00:34 -0400

This review is to be expected given that the November 2002 consent decree was extended into 2009 after several states petitioned to make that so. The real question is, is the US "investigation" going to really do anything substantial? Or will it rubber stamp whatever it finds?

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Microsoft to EU: Please forget about the $1.3 billion fine

Microsoft Subnet — Fri, 09 May 2008 19:39:15 -0400

Microsoft, don't hold your breath that the EU will pat you on the shoulder and forgive the $1.3 fine it imposed in February. It is good for all concerned (including Microsoft itself, your customers and your stock holders), that you have arrived at the modern age and published the protocols for Windows, Office and other applications. This allows Windows to remain viable -- to be a target for open source developers wanting to create great new apps for it, instead of being slowly replaced by Linux (which might still happen).

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Another huge thump on the head from the EU?

Microsoft Subnet — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:19:12 -0400

Granted, Microsoft is a ruthless competitor, and the EU's hard-handed approachhas been generally a good thing -- forcing Microsoft to open itself up, which in the long run will be good for everyone, even Microsoft. But it will be interesting to see if the anti-Microsoft forces in Europe can get Microsoft excluded from EU gov't contracts because of the company's antitrust violations.

Given the enormity of the software that would become off limits to EU IT departments, that would not be a good move for anyone.

Go to the Microsoft Subnet home page for more news, blogs, opinion.

New Chinese antitrust law could affect Microsoft/Yahoo deal

Microsoft Subnet — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:54:50 -0400

When Yahoo invested $1 billion in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba.com, it may have put itself under the jurisdiction of a new antitrust law, reports the New York Times. The law, which goes into effect August 1, gives Chinese regulators the authority to examine foreign mergers when the foreign companies involved invest in Chinese companies.

Legal experts say the law could make China a worldwide regulatory powerhouse on par with Washington and Brussels. However, the specifics of how China might influence a merger between Microsoft and Yahoo are fuzzy. The story notes:

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Windows 7 in a hurry

Microsoft Subnet — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:57:04 -0400

While the submission of Windows 7 to the U.S. DOJ's technical committee doesn't reveal much about the operating system, it does indicate how serious Microsoft is in getting its next client OS out the door. Vista has tanked. Better get the next one done.

Perhaps analyst Mike Cherry has hit on a good solution. What if Microsoft makes Windows 7 a lean, mean business machine (that also complies with DOJ stipulations that it doesn't favor Microsoft software over others')? Then again, by the time this OS could be ready to ship, businesses could have already moved on to desktop Linux or Apple's Leopard.

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EU fines Microsoft $1.3B for antitrust abuse

videonet — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:33:36 -0500

In the continuing saga between Microsoft and the European Commission, the commission fined Microsoft 899 million Euros, about 1.3 billion dollars on Wednesday for what the competition commissioner called continued failure to honor a 2004 antitrust ruling.

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Microsoft may be slapped with $2.2 billion antitrust fine from EU

Microsoft Subnet — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:19:26 -0500

Regulators in the European Union have not been swayed by Microsoft's announcement last week that it was finally making its software communication protocols openly available. Bloomberg is reporting that the EU is considering slapping Microsoft with a fine for not complying with its 2004 antitrust order. The fine may be announced on February 27. Microsoft revealed in a January 24 regulatory filing that it was anticipating a fine that could be as high as 1.5 euros ($2.2 billino).

The story reports:

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Torvalds approves of Microsoft's protocol sharing

Microsoft Subnet — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:58:31 -0500

As you might expect, the open source community has given a mixed response to Microsoft's announcement last week that it is freely publishing protocols for its popular software to ease interoperability. Some are cautiously optimistic and some remain hostile. Red Hat, for instance, remains in the hostile camp, according to a story in the Washington Post. No surprise there since Red Hat's operating systems competes directly with Microsoft's wares, and Red Hat wins when Microsoft takes an anti-open-source stance.

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European Commission to Microsoft ... not buying it

Microsoft Subnet — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 16:20:24 -0500

The European Commission, in the midst of two formal antitrust investigations against Microsoft, is not buying Microsoft's announcement today that the company has gone hog-wild open. It notes that Microsoft has already promised such things -- four times over. And it says that today's promises (if the company follows through with them) doesn't relieve Microsoft from the consequences of its alleged past failure of complying with earlier antitrust rules.

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One of the differences with today's announcement

Microsoft Subnet — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:31:50 -0500

Today's announcement is a little different than the promises Microsoft has made in the past in that it is publishing the protocols and APIs, not just promising to do so. Of course, only time will tell if the protocols it publishes are lacking in some way.

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Microsoft: We're open source friendly, as of today

Microsoft Subnet — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 12:07:34 -0500

UPDATED: Microsoft today is announcing that it declares itself open. It is promising

1) Open connections
2) Data portability
3) Support for industry standards
4) More open engagement with the industry and open source software community

Perhaps the biggest news is that Microsoft is making its protocols and APIs completely open and available on its Web site for its high volume products, Windows and Office. This is, of course, the source of contention that the European Commission was investigating. So score one for the EC. It has clearly been one of the major driving sources in this Microsoft announcement.

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Antitrust oversight of Microsoft extended to 2009

Microsoft Subnet — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 11:47:00 -0500

Microsoft announced yesterday that Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued an order extending the consent decree through November 12, 2009. The court’s action came in response to requests by a number of states involved in the case to extend the consent decree by five years.

Microsoft published this timeline of events concerning its history with the antitrust oversight consent decree:

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Microsoft Remains Untrustworthy

Mitchell Ashley — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 05:21:19 -0500

Tuesday, District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly extended the court's antitrust oversight of Microsoft an additional two years , until Nov. 12, 2009. The two year extension came because Microsoft hasn't yet turned over technical documentation required by the consent decree from 2002.

The states who were party to the antitrust lawsuit wanted a five year extension due to concerns Microsoft will turn to it's old ways of bullying hardware manufactures and intertwine applications with the Windows operating system.

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Microsoft antitrust troubles continue in Europe with two new cases

Microsoft Subnet — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:19:42 -0500

Europe is downright determined to reign in antitrust mischief from Microsoft, which can only be called a good thing, as the U.S.'s attempts have been completely ineffective. Today, two new European cases were announced. The first case is in response to a complaint from the European Committee for Interoperable Systems, a Brussels-based trade group of which Opera Software is a member. (Opera also filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft in mid-December.) This new case concerns the interoperability of Windows with other software, the Commission said Monday.

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Microsoft Consent Decree, Phase X

Kerrie Meyler — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 00:29:23 -0500

In November 2002, Microsoft agreed to abide by the terms of a consent decree with the department of justice and most of the states after the antitrust ruling against Microsoft. The decree included a number of milestones, which you can find described on numerous sites, including Microsoft's (http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/settlementprogram/default.mspx). The decree states that third parties may submit complaints concerning Microsoft's compliance with the Consent Decree.

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Four more states lobby for continued Microsoft oversight

Microsoft Subnet — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 14:05:02 -0400

New York, Maryland, Louisiana and Florida have joined the "Microsoft oversight" bandwagon. They have submitted their own plea to continue judicial oversight of Microsoft. This after the so-called California Group formally petitioned to extend oversight to 2012 last week. (The California Group is lead by California but also includes Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and Massachusetts, the District of Columbia.)

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