EU May Issue Preliminary Microsoft Ruling This Year

Yeti7226 writes "Just saw this on Yahoo!: EU Sees Preliminary Microsoft Decision Late '02 Here's an excerpt: "The European Commission will issue a preliminary ruling in an antitrust case against Microsoft late this year and a final decision next year, a top official at the EU executive said on Friday." Yeti7226 continues: "I don't expect this to have immediate effect but the ruling itself may serve to wake some people that are as of yet unaware of the kind of company they are dealing with (yes, those people exist)."

Assumptions

[Trusty Penfold]

but the ruling itself may serve to wake some people

You're assuming they're going to find against Microsoft.

Re:Assumptions

[belroth]

I would have thought that if the finding was for Microsoft there would be no need for a preliminary ruling while they wait for Judge Patel to rule.

Mysteries of the orient (to some)

[E_elven]

I'm sure at this point MS will start regretting not having invested enough time (=money) into lobbying in Europe. After all, who cares about some ass-backwards place beyond the big blue ocean? Isn't the world flat, anyway?

I would imagine (in my hopeful mind), that even if they had (and what little they have), they wouldn't have such an impact in EU affairs.. after all, EU doesn't get money out of their revenue and there are quite a few countries at least open-minded about open sourcing stuff (Germany as the biggest player there, of course).

I'm not expecting much from the US case -although it might be a good thing that the judge is taking this long to decide (probably trying to figure out whether BilG's last pair of pants are to go to the Salvation Army or the Red Cross *fingers crossed*). I'm far more hopeful in the EU case, although I suppose people aren't that different here. We just have a better system .)

E

Settle down now

[__aafkqj3628]

Although this case will be significantly smaller than that in the US, it could prove influential over there.

But let's just hope the little evil word 'settlement' doesn't pop up any time soon.

Re:Settle down now

[Kierthos]

Actually, it's incredibly likely that Microsoft will seek a settlement if the preliminary ruling makes the final ruling look really bad. How much money can they throw at this to make it go away, after all?

Kierthos

Re:Settle down now

[__aafkqj3628]

Yeah, but the last settlement (DoJ vs. MS) came up with very little end results (ie. no split ups, no product extraction etc).
Which was very disappointing to see the DoJ winning and then throw it all away!