Microsoft: EU Deal Will Require 'Significant Change'

By Marcus Yam
published

Today the European Union announced that it has reached a satisfactory point with Microsoft in its resolution of any possible monopolistic behavior surrounding Internet Explorer's bundling into Windows.

Microsoft's Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Brad Smith, offered comments on the decision from the European Commission.

"We are pleased with today’s decision by the European Commission, which approves a final resolution of several longstanding competition law issues in Europe," said Smith. "Today’s resolution follows years of intensive examination by the European Commission of competition in computer software. The measures approved today reflect multiple rounds of input from industry participants relating to competition in Web browser software and interoperability between various Microsoft products and competing products."

While the policy of a Choice Screen for Windows users going forward doesn't sound like too big of an effort, the European Commission reserves the right to make adjustments to the browser choice screen. Furthermore, if Microsoft breaks any of its commitments, the European Commission could impose a fine of up to 10 percent of Microsoft's total annual turnover without having to prove any violation of EU antitrust rules.

"As we’ve said before, we are embarking on a path that will require significant change within Microsoft. Nevertheless, we believe that these are important steps that resolve these competition law concerns," Smith adds. "This is an important day and a major step forward, and we look forward to building a new foundation for the future in Europe."

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
67 Comments Comment from the forums
  • logitic
    "This is an important day and a major step forward, and we look forward to building a new foundation for the future in Europe."

    Europe is just funny today! Big ups to EU!!

    Reply
  • cheepstuff
    hi, i'm cheepstuff and that statement was 'my' idea...
    Reply
  • coonday
    "the European Commission reserves the right to make adjustments to the browser choice screen. Furthermore, if Microsoft breaks any of its commitments, the European Commission could impose a fine of up to 10 percent of Microsoft's total annual turnover without having to prove any violation of EU antitrust rules."

    This statement right here strengthens my belief that the EU is one of the most confining, dictatorial, and evil governing bodies I've ever seen.
    Reply
  • logitic
    coonday"the European Commission reserves the right to make adjustments to the browser choice screen. Furthermore, if Microsoft breaks any of its commitments, the European Commission could impose a fine of up to 10 percent of Microsoft's total annual turnover without having to prove any violation of EU antitrust rules."This statement right here strengthens my belief that the EU is one of the most confining, dictatorial, and evil governing bodies I've ever seen.
    This is one of the rare days I am glad to be an American. err wait I have the FTC....

    DAMNIT!
    Reply
  • bystander
    Out of curiousity, does Apple's OS have to jump through these hoops too?
    Reply
  • logitic
    bystanderOut of curiousity, does Apple's OS have to jump through these hoops too?
    I don't think so.

    EU is setting up a scary precedent with their actions here.
    Reply
  • JamesSneed
    This is over 10 years late. A bit before MS killed off Netscape would have been a good time for this. Now its just pointless bit of control the EU is imposing on MS. I guess we have MS to thank for the free browsers since back in the early 90's you had to pay for a browser. I am hoping 10 years from now IE has lost most of its market share at the hands of open source.
    Reply
  • tpi2007
    The article doesn't say when will this come into effect... if it's after Christmas, many millions will already have bought Windows 7 (many already have anyway) without the browser choice screen, like I have. MS will probably delay it as much as they legally can I guess.

    I find this whole thing curious, because it reflects the lack of any speed in justice being made. Back in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004... Internet Explorer 6 had an enormous market share and what did the EU do ? Nothing.

    We were almost stuck with an insecure and at a certain point many years old browser, which Microsoft didn't care to update technologically, and besides, it didn't comply with a lot of standards.

    In recent years, first with Firefox 2 and now 3 and 3.5, and the word spreading, IE, even with Microsoft having woken up and implementing new features, has lost and is losing market share every day to Firefox.

    And now that the path towards the loss of the monopoly of IE looks like it's already on auto-pilot, the EU comes along pretending to be doing something necessary. What a lack of timing!

    And whatever happend to the Media Player problems ? I remember Windows XP was also released in an N version, but only 1500 copies have been sold to OEMS and none to the consumers directly (who in their right mind would buy the thing ?); the price being the same and it being sold alongside, and with Windows Vista the same; there are also N version of 7 available, but the Eu alows MS to sell them alonside the normal versions, for the same price. Let's see, does this make any sense at all ? If I can spare an extra download, I will. This is just classic proforma burocracy.

    And the Media PLayer thaty comes with Windows 7 is actually quite good, with a nice interface and buil-in codecs. But wat, it's too late, the EU can't fine them anymore, because they allow the N versions.
    Reply
  • rocky1234
    Well I do hope that Apple has to go through the same thing at some point I mean come on it is only fair if one has to do it then everyone should have to. Please do not give me oh but Apple only has a small portion of the PC market & Microsoft has a lot more speech this has nothing to do with the size of their market share but rather a fair & balanced out come for every one that is involved. In the next year I hope to see the playing field the same for everyone involved whether they have 98% or just 2% of the market.

    Also from what I just read it sounds like the EU can pretty much decide at anytime that MS has not held up their end of the deal & make them pay heavy fines if they chose to

    "Furthermore, if Microsoft breaks any of its commitments, the European Commission could impose a fine of up to 10 percent of Microsoft
    's total annual turnover without having to prove any violation of EU antitrust rules."

    That part kinda seems a bit one side leaning in favor of the EU of coarse.

    these are just my thoughts on this
    Reply
  • bystander
    I realize that open source is nice and all, but don't the people who create the software we use deserve to earn money for their work?

    Instead of paying for a browser now, we have advertisement up the wazoo. I can live with it, it also drives an advertisement economy.

    The only reason I can see them picking on MS in this particular fashion is they are trying to kill off MS enough to bring in more competition.

    If not for their near monopoply, MS providing a browser is standard practice for an OS. They should have the write to bundle it in with their OS like all others do. It's not like they prevent you from using others (they did some of that many years ago, however). Apple controls everything put on their OS's, why can't MS just provide one option with a normal install?
    Reply