EC Sends Statement of Objections To Microsoft For Violating Anti-Trust Agreement 173
dkleinsc writes "Three years ago, Microsoft came to an agreement with EU regulators that required them to provide users with a choice of web browsers. Last July, they found Microsoft in breach of that agreement. Today, they announced that this will result in charges, potentially resulting in fines as large as $7 billion."
Microsoft gets one last chance to defend itself.
Re:Well, the EU has to make money some how (Score:3, Informative)
Can't install another browser on the iPad or iPhone?
Chrome
Dolphin
Opera
Mercury
Atomic
Dingo
Re:Well, the EU has to make money some how (Score:4, Informative)
Can't install another browser on the iPad or iPhone?
Chrome Dolphin Opera Mercury Atomic Dingo
Besides Opera those are all skins around Safari, they are not new browsers. Opera's a little special because it's not a browser, it's more like a browser previewer where the browser actually runs on Operas servers.
Re:Foul EU (Score:4, Informative)
7 billion? Somebody has to actually try to establish why its a 7billion fine.
Scaling. Because it doesn't do anything if you fine a company with 50k if said company makes 3 billion a quarter.
Re:Choice of Browsers is MS's Burden? (Score:5, Informative)
Have the standards for posting comments gotten so low that people don't even completely read the submission title? (I already know nobody reads the article or the whole summary even...)
Here's a quick (rough) overview for you and the mods who put you at +5:
1. Microsoft was accused of unfairly using its monopoly in the OS market to get people to use IE over Netscape.
2. Microsoft and the EU came to an agreement that Microsoft would offer a choice of browsers to users., or be punished.
3. Microsoft is now accused of breaking that agreement.
The fact that firefox, opera and safari are easily reachable with a Google search is completely irrelevant. Microsoft made an agreement with the EU and broke it.
And one more thing: No, most computer users do not go and download a browser. You can call them lazy and/or stupid all you want, but that doesn't change the fact that many people just don't care what browser they are using. They turn on the computer, and they start using the internet. The browser is completely irrelevant to them. In the context of Microsoft's OS monopoly in the 90s, it makes perfect sense for users to be asked what browser they want to use up front.
Re:bundle (Score:4, Informative)
Apple doesn't ban other browsers on iOS, there are dozens.
All the others are just skins running on top of the Safari renderer. Opera is the exception, and they are were only able to pull it off with a weird hack (with the renderer running sever-side).