EU Fines Microsoft $731M

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Finally, the poor people that were affected by this travesty will now be able to afford to buy a real browser. This money will go a long way to help those in need of a browser choice that Microsoft has denied them for so long.

Microsoft is to learn the hard way that "a deal is a deal," at least in the eyes of the European Union, by being forced to swallow a massive fine for breaching earlier promises made with the 27-nation bloc. The software giant has been fined 561 million euros ($731 million) by European authorities for falling foul of previous antitrust settlement conditions.
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Microsoft should pull out of Europe. Imagine the chaos it would cause.
 
Waiting for the usual "EU stealing murican moneis" and "[placeholder] should just pull out of EU" :D

It's a stupid decision, though. I never got to the screen in Windows 7 but I had to deal with in 8. Useless bugger IMO.
 
Huh? So because Windows doesn't have a special "browser choice" button, that's an antitrust violation? My copy of Windows doesn't have one either and I've have had no issues downloading and installing different browsers. What did I miss?
 
Fuck, this crazy guy beat me to it :(
 
MacLeod said:
Huh? So because Windows doesn't have a special "browser choice" button, that's an antitrust violation? My copy of Windows doesn't have one either and I've have had no issues downloading and installing different browsers. What did I miss?
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The EU needs money to bail out all of the irresponsible countries that went broke with all of the entitlements and government handouts.
 
damicatz said:
The EU needs money to bail out all of the irresponsible countries that went broke with all of the entitlements and government handouts.
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I kinda thought that was the issue. Same with the American tobacco fines. It was seen as a slush fund for these parasite politicians in DC. Guess Europe isn't immune from parasite politicians either.
 
hopiamani said:
My chromebook doesn't let me choose browsers. Should Google be fined too?
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Sure, EC should fine them 546 billion billion billion billion billion euros. That's going to keep Greece afloat for a few years.
 
I remember this crap.

It's so incredibly retarded. It would be an antitrust thing if they actively prevent another browser. Which they do not.
 
I don't like IE..haven't since win 98 honestly. However I have found this whole anti-trust thing from EU to be nothing more than a flagrant money grab since the beginning. There is nothing anti-competitive about not offering your competitions offerings on "YOUR" product. No other industry is forced to put up with bullshit like promoting their competition.
 
MacLeod said:
Huh? So because Windows doesn't have a special "browser choice" button, that's an antitrust violation? My copy of Windows doesn't have one either and I've have had no issues downloading and installing different browsers. What did I miss?
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The power of default choices.

The EU thinks that since most consumers (non-tech-savvy) just roll with what's available (read: IE) it rises to the level of anti-trust (I don't think it does).

If MS made it hard to get other browsers, sure--that's anti-competitive behavior.

However...

reasonsforusinginternet.png
 
This just proves how stupid people have become. My guess is that the majority of the "15 million" people affected by this actually are not using IE as the main browser.
 
Make a "Windows EU" version and charge an extra $10 for it. The catch? EU stands for "everything uninstalled." Let them pay for everything (media player, paint, IE, etc. etc.) separately too.

That fine will be gone in no time just with the added $10. ;)
 
MacLeod said:
Huh? So because Windows doesn't have a special "browser choice" button, that's an antitrust violation? My copy of Windows doesn't have one either and I've have had no issues downloading and installing different browsers. What did I miss?
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MS agreed in a settlement to put that choice there up until specified date. Then due the error or choice (we will never know), it disappeared after W7 SP1. So it is a violation of a settlement MS agreed to follow.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
I don't like IE..haven't since win 98 honestly. However I have found this whole anti-trust thing from EU to be nothing more than a flagrant money grab since the beginning. There is nothing anti-competitive about not offering your competitions offerings on "YOUR" product. No other industry is forced to put up with bullshit like promoting their competition.
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How is it a money grab if they agreed to it? It's not like EC is going to fine them for complying lol
 
Although I kinda agree the "anti-trust" thing was a stretch, you should remember that it wasn't the fact that IE was the default and that you couldn't load another browser that was the problem. It was the fact that if you uninstalled IE, you made windows (98 I think at the time) unusable since the browser was intertwined with everything.
 
dgz said:
How is it a money grab if they agreed to it? It's not like EC is going to fine them for complying lol
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They agreed to it because they were forced too. The original lawsuit by the EU is what I was referring too.
 
It's kind of silly, but they did agree to it... So it's kind of their fault for not doing what they agreed to, however stupid it is...

Incidentally, the dollar is now worth crap to the Euro...
 
The fact they have to do this is daft but they broke the agreement and could have been fined up to 10% of their annual revenue (which is a lot more than what they have been fined).

It's Microsoft's fault, it's not like this is a new thing the EU does. Why risk getting fined by removing it in the first place?!

Maybe next time they settle on some terms they will stick to them. 'Technical error' just doesn't fly I'm afraid.
 
Did MS abuse its dominant position? You bet. Did they agree to comply? Yes, they did. There would be no "money grab" if they behaved as they promised to.

Was Intel vs AMD settlement money grab as well? That nasty EC!!!
 
Sovereign said:
The power of default choices.

The EU thinks that since most consumers (non-tech-savvy) just roll with what's available (read: IE) it rises to the level of anti-trust (I don't think it does).

If MS made it hard to get other browsers, sure--that's anti-competitive behavior.

However...

reasonsforusinginternet.png
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You can download Mozilla?
 
DeathPrincess said:
Well...when the US invades anywhere they usually do it with the EU in some way... So it would end up the EU invading itself, which would leave it all defenseless! :eek:
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Exactly. It's a perfect plan. Plus logistics will be a breeze if we don't have to bring food.
 
I dont see how EU is wrong here. MS agreed to it in the 1st place and they broke their word. MS must of known a fine would be issued and accepted it as negligible when they broke the agreement they signed. I would fine MS as well... let's be honest here. Wouldnt you? If someone you entered into a contract with broke it... wouldnt you want compensation?
 
In other news, the EU announced today they are adopting Uncle Moneybags as their mascot:
 
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Dat money grabz, it's not like the EU uses the money as reparations to those effected it just goes into their general fund for the EU.
 
BettiePage said:
I dont see how EU is wrong here. MS agreed to it in the 1st place and they broke their word. MS must of known a fine would be issued and accepted it as negligible when they broke the agreement they signed. I would fine MS as well... let's be honest here. Wouldnt you? If someone you entered into a contract with broke it... wouldnt you want compensation?
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A contract? That's like me telling you I'm going to punch you in the throat if you don't change the TV channel.
 
Someone needs to delete ir0nw0lf's image since it's hitting malware warnings on Chrome.
 
Kaitian said:
Someone needs to delete ir0nw0lf's image since it's hitting malware warnings on Chrome.
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Erm, sorry if it is, was a simple copy of the image location, Firefox didn't go crazy over on this end.
 
ir0nw0lf said:
Erm, sorry if it is, was a simple copy of the image location, Firefox didn't go crazy over on this end.
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Mine (Firefox 19.0.1 with noscript) didn't even let me open it, so I had to manually insert <img> into the site lol

LeninGHOLA said:
A contract? That's like me telling you I'm going to punch you in the throat if you don't change the TV channel.
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hahaha. I'll vote for you next time MS is selecting new CEO if you promise to pull out of EU :D
 
Steve had it right. Just add $10 to the cost of Windows purchased in the EU and be done with it.
 
damicatz said:
Microsoft should pull out of Europe. Imagine the chaos it would cause.
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Yeah yeah, bla bla, EU bad M$ did noting wrong ..........

And what about the deal they made with the EU about the browser ballot.

It was in there for a year, and then by some "accidental" oversight, it was gone in W7 SP1.

After all the legal fighting they had with the EU!

Did they thought that the EU would now this time just roll over for them just like the US does... oops!

No, I don't believe that this was some sort of "oversight".

What happens if you first get stopped for (repeated) speeding, and get a ticket for it, then you drive away for a mile, keeping the limit, and then you put the hammer down again, and you are doing all of this, wile your still in sight of the cops, what will the cops do?

Because basically this is how colossally stupid MS was, and they know it, Because this is one of the reasons Steve Balmer got his bonus cut.

Apparently even the previous fines did not teach them a lesson, so, and like notorious speeders, MS apparently can only learn to follow the law, when you fine them.

Its not the EU that is wrong or greedy, its MS that is just to stupid for words, and breaking the law AGAIN!!!!!!!
 
LeninGHOLA said:
A contract? That's like me telling you I'm going to punch you in the throat if you don't change the TV channel.
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Hey, hey, that contract was supposed to be private. Now stop watching Disney Playhouse... that giant bear is creepy. :eek:
 
player-x said:
Yeah yeah, bla bla, EU bad M$ did noting wrong ..........

And what about the deal they made with the EU about the browser ballot.

It was in there for a year, and then by some "accidental" oversight, it was gone in W7 SP1.

After all the legal fighting they had with the EU!

Did they thought that the EU would now this time just roll over for them just like the US does... oops!

No, I don't believe that this was some sort of "oversight".

What happens if you first get stopped for (repeated) speeding, and get a ticket for it, then you drive away for a mile, keeping the limit, and then you put the hammer down again, and you are doing all of this, wile your still in sight of the cops, what will the cops do?

Because basically this is how colossally stupid MS was, and they know it, Because this is one of the reasons Steve Balmer got his bonus cut.

Apparently even the previous fines did not teach them a lesson, so, and like notorious speeders, MS apparently can only learn to follow the law, when you fine them.

Its not the EU that is wrong or greedy, its MS that is just to stupid for words, and breaking the law AGAIN!!!!!!!
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I don't know why so many people can't grasp how to put together an analogy.

Microsoft didn't offer links to competing products, that's all. It's not illegal for any other company unless it is Microsoft. They should never have been forced to in the first place. Most people have Google as their homepage. If you can't figure out how to get Chrome from there it's a personal issue.
 
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