04/23/2007, 1:35pm, EDT
Monday, April 23rdMicrosoft may face crippling EU fines
Although already sanctioned with multi-million-dollar fines by the European Union, Microsoft could soon start bleeding that amount daily, warns EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes. Microsoft is accused of artificially inflating the price of its Workgroup Server Protocol Program; this, says the EU, is discouraging competitors from producing their own server software. Reuters reports that Microsoft has so far refused to lower prices, citing a need for "greater clarity" on what a reasonable price would be. If the two sides are unable to come to an agreement, Microsoft could fined as much as €3 million ($4 million) daily, laying waste to the company's profits.
This is not the first confrontation Microsoft has had with the EU. In January the company agreed to change the content of the first Service Pack for Windows Vista, so that third-party developers could access the same OS layers as Microsoft; the release will also strip away Windows Media Player (as built-in) and add more control over search engines in Internet Explorer. In 2004 the EU fined Microsoft €497 million ($678 million), on the basis that the company was not sharing information other server makers needed. The decision is still in an appeals process.
Another solution proposed by Kroes is restructuring. In theory this could see the creation of one or more separate businesses, as a judge of the US Justice Department attempted to order in 2000. That decision was eventually thrown out however, and Kroes has not argued for any particular plans to be put forward.
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yes, $4 million fine to a 44 billion $$ company isnt that much.. but it certainly chips away at the profits. And investors want to see profits!!
You are confused - the European companies are not charging the fines, the governments are. As sovereign governments, they can do whatever they like - that's the whole point of sovereignty.
Of course, Microsoft is under no obligation to do business in Europe. If they don't like the conditions, they can choose to leave - nobody is stopping them. Both sides are perfectly free to exercise their freedoms.
But if that's the rule, that's the rule. Although, if you could removed the camera, that may help. Palm, Apple and others should investigate making a phone where the camera can be unscrewed and replaced with an opaque plug for taking to work in places that don't allow cameras.