EU fines Microsoft €561 million for browser ballot violation

[nsane.forums]

The European Union has fined Microsoft $732 million for violating its 2009 antitrust agreement because Microsoft's web browser ballot did not work for a period of time in some Windows 7 PCs.

As promised earlier this week, the European Union's antitrust regulators in the European Commission have indeed fined Microsoft to the tune of 561 million euros, or $732 million, due to Microsoft's violations of a 2009 anti-trust agreement with the EU.

In 2009, Microsoft signed an agreement with the EU that would give owners of Windows-based PCs in Europe a required ballot that would display many different web browsers to download, including Microsoft's own Internet Explorer. This was due to the EU's opinion that Microsoft's IE web browser was being given special treatment.

Microsoft did admit in July that a number of Windows 7-based PCs did not display the required web browser download ballot in Europe for a lengthy period of time. The company said a software glitch was to blame and has since sent out an update to the affected Windows 7 PCs to restore the menu. It has also said it will continue to show the ballot screen beyond the previously agreed to time period.

In today's press release, the European Commission noted this was the first time that it has fined a company for not complying with a previous antitrust agreement. Commission Vice President in charge of competition policy Joaquín Almunia stated:

Legally binding commitments reached in antitrust decisions play a very important role in our enforcement policy because they allow for rapid solutions to competition problems. Of course, such decisions require strict compliance. A failure to comply is a very serious infringement that must be sanctioned accordingly.

Update: Microsoft has released a brief response to the EU fine:

We take full responsibility for the technical error that caused this problem and have apologized for it. We provided the Commission with a complete and candid assessment of the situation, and we have taken steps to strengthen our software development and other processes to help avoid this mistake – or anything similar – in the future.

View: Original Article

[DKT27]

For the first time. I'll say that it's not Microsoft's fault. A software glitch, as long as it's not purposely done, cannot be counted as a crime.

[InEvX]

3/4 of a billion dollar seems quite excessive. Hell, Samsung paid .5 billion and they were found guilty of patent infringement....

[ffi]

For the first time. I'll say that it's not Microsoft's fault. A software glitch, as long as it's not purposely done, cannot be counted as a crime.

Even if MS purposely removed the browser choice screen they had every right to do it . The EUSSR has NO RIGHTS whatsoever to demand businesses how to sell their products, let alone force a business to advertise their competitors.

This fine amounts to nothing more than racketeering, no one in Europe voted for these lying, stealing self enriching EUSSR politician scumibags (in fact they seem to be made up from politicians that were run of in their own countries for being lying, corrupt out of touch with reality scumbugs)

[Gabben]

For the first time. I'll say that it's not Microsoft's fault. A software glitch, as long as it's not purposely done, cannot be counted as a crime.

Even if MS purposely removed the browser choice screen they had every right to do it . The EUSSR has NO RIGHTS whatsoever to demand businesses how to sell their products, let alone force a business to advertise their competitors.

This fine amounts to nothing more than racketeering, no one in Europe voted for these lying, stealing self enriching EUSSR politician scumibags (in fact they seem to be made up from politicians that were run of in their own countries for being lying, corrupt out of touch with reality scumbugs)

Agree. I hope one day the EU will collapse and the countrys will be free from this bullshit EU.

[DKT27]

Google and Opera behind Microsoft's browser ballot fine?

A new rumor is stating that Google and Opera were the ones who tipped off the EU about the absence of the browser ballot screen after the rollout of SP1 to Windows 7 users in the EU.

The EU has released its ruling on Microsoft’s (accidental) absent ‘browser ballot’ and it will dip deep into Microsoft’s purse and grab a boatload of cash to the tune 732 million dollars. In fact, since 2004, Microsoft has been fined over 3 billion dollars by the EU, after this latest judgment.

An interesting post over at Financial Times is stating that Google and Opera may actually have been behind the fine, or at least, tipping off the EU about the absent browser ballot screen. Insider sources, are stating that Google and Opera informally pinged the EU to let them know that Microsoft was in violation of the browser ballot agreement.

While Google declined to comment on the story, Opera did say that they were happy to see that the EU is holding firm to their agreements and enforcing the ruling.

It would not be a surprise to see Google behind the tip to the EU, considering Microsoft has been going after nearly all of Google’s Android vendors with IP claims against the software. If Google did spot the issue, it was an easy and indirect way for them to get back at Microsoft by using the EU as a medium.

While we will likely never know if the tip was true, it wouldn’t be a stretch to see Google and Opera raise the flag as both companies have a lot to gain from the browser ballot screen.

View: Original Article

Comment: Fun fact. EU browser ballot bug effected Mozilla more than Google and Opera did. However, I don't see them tipping EU for their own personal benefits.

[ffi]

This is despicable behavior of opera and/or Google very unsportsmanlike, you win on the gree market by offering a better product not by use of force. Anyway the true question remains who gave these money grabbing nitwits in the eussr this power to fine Microsoft? I am pretty sure not a single person in Europe, except for some corrupt power hungry politicians have.

[MrEMan]

I think you are all missing the point that Microsoft signed the agreement and therefor had to comply or pay the consequence. As for being a glitch... who wrote the code and who is responsible for the software doing what was intended?

[DKT27]

I think you are all missing the point that Microsoft signed the agreement and therefor had to comply or pay the consequence. As for being a glitch... who wrote the code and who is responsible for the software doing what was intended?

Agreement thing is alright. But you can't blame someone for a glitch / bug. Now, if Microsoft knew about this but did nothing, then it's their fault. But if they were unaware about it, they shouldn't be fined. They should have been given a warning atleast.

[DKT27]

Microsoft's $731 million fine could have been higher

Microsoft may have to pay out a a substantial €561 million (US$731 million) fine over its business practices. But the total bill could have been even higher, according to Europe's antitrust chief.

The software giant was hit with the fine by the European Commission for failing to offer a browser choice page for 14 months following its upgrade to Windows 7 in early 2011. The browser ballot screen was set as a requirement by the Commission after Microsoft was found to have breached European Union competition laws by bundling Internet Explorer browser with the Windows OS.

Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia could have imposed a fine of up to 10 percent of Microsoft’s global annual revenue—around $7 billion. But he said that the final figure was calculated based on the length of time of the infringement. That Microsoft cooperated with the Commission and restored the browser choice screen as soon as the omission was reported was a mitigating factor, Almunia said.

However, a failure to comply with settlement commitments, whether intentional or not, is a very serious infringement that must be sanctioned accordingly, the Commissioner said.

Microsoft said the omission was an oversight due to a “technical fault.”

“We take full responsibility for the technical error that caused this problem and have apologized for it,” Microsoft said in a statement Wednesday. “We provided the Commission with a complete and candid assessment of the situation, and we have taken steps to strengthen our software development and other processes to help avoid this mistake—or anything similar—in the future.”

In July, the company also offered to extend the choice screen for an extra 14 months equivalent to the time it was down.

The Commissioner has increasingly used settlements—so-called Article 9 decisions—to solve antitrust cases. Almunia said that in fast-moving markets such as ICT, these could be more effective than punitive fines.

This is the first time the Commission has fined a company for failing to honor commitments. Almunia is keen to send the message that settlements must be followed to the letter.

Asked why no one had noticed that the choice screen wasn’t being offered for 16 months, Almunia replied: “In any Article 9 decision we need to be able to monitor the commitments included in the decisions.” He further admitted that the Commission had been “naive” to appoint Microsoft to monitor itself.

“We trusted the monitoring reports. But we need to pay even more attention to these reports. We haven’t yet worked out how we are going to approach this monitoring question,” said the Commissioner.

View: Original Article

[JessicaLeigh]

I think you are all missing the point that Microsoft signed the agreement and therefor had to comply or pay the consequence. As for being a glitch... who wrote the code and who is responsible for the software doing what was intended?

Agreement thing is alright. But you can't blame someone for a glitch / bug. Now, if Microsoft knew about this but did nothing, then it's their fault. But if they were unaware about it, they shouldn't be fined. They should have been given a warning atleast.

I think it should have been called to MS's immediate attention to either resolve the issue post-haste, or be fined.

[Ganxxta]

As much as I dislike MS and their IE, I still don't see how the EU can force them to 1. include a choice menu containing their competitors 2. charging them extremely high fines for that...

I mean IE is there to download an alternative browser of your choice, no need to force that. Sure IE should be (completely) uninstallable without sacrificing major OS features, but thats about it.

Its like forcing VW to tell their customers how much better BMW/Mercedes etc. are and if they like to get one of those instead of a VW... :wtf:

EU :ermm:

[LeeSmithG]

The E.U. is a mockery.

It's run by un-elected judges and people that just suck up free money like a huge vacuum cleaner.

E.U. will fine M$ $1,000,000,000 for example.

It will be the consumer, you and I that will be paying the fine in price and cost rise for software and services from M$,

E.U. needs to be shut down.

C.C.C.P. is a better place with separate states.

So why do we need to be one big happy European country run by morons in Belgium and Switzerland.

We don't need to be part of this.