EU Set To Charge Microsoft Over Ruling Breach 254
New submitter quippe writes in with some bad news for Microsoft. "Microsoft Corp will be charged for failing to comply with a 2009 ruling ordering it to offer a choice of web browsers, the European Union's antitrust chief said on Thursday, which could mean a hefty fine for the company. U.S.-based Microsoft's more than decade-long battle with the European Commission has already landed it with fines totaling more than a billion euros ($1.28 billion). The Commission, which opened an investigation into the issue in July, is now preparing formal charges against the company, EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said."
Re:I don't understand why they're doing this (Score:5, Informative)
It didn't ship for 17 months (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/17/microsoft_ec_browser_choice_fresh_investigation/
So 28 million Windows went out without the choice, and Microsoft got away with it for 17 months. I don't see why you have difficulty understanding it, it all seems pretty simple to me. It's not like they can claim ignorance, they were told by their competitors it wasn't showing the browser choice and they chose to 'investigate' it for a heck of a long time before finally fixing it when Brussels became involved.
It's just Microsoft being Microsoft, they'll never change, just hit them with a big fat non-compliance fooling-nobody fine and move on till the next time (which will be the 3rd time) they do it.
Re:I don't understand why they're doing this (Score:4, Informative)
I don't understand why they're doing this. There has been a browser choice screen shipped with it and via windows update for ages now. It stinks of profitteering on the part of the EU. You don't hear them suing the crap out of pharmaceutical companies for a monopoly either.
Here's a little back ground
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_Microsoft_competition_case [wikipedia.org]
Re:Question: have they ever paid a single Euro? (Score:5, Informative)
We keep reading that they're being investigated, charged, "fined", but cut to the chase: what actual sums have left Microsoft's account and gone into the Brussels swill trough?
The summary says $1.28 billion, i.e, just slightly more than Apple got from Samsung in a patent lawsuit where the jury didn't understand how prior art worked.
Looks like 100 million units (Score:2, Informative)
I made the mistake of taking that 28 million at face value, but that number comes from Microsoft wishing to downplay what it did.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7
"On March 4, 2010, Microsoft announced that it had sold more than 90 million Windows 7 licenses.", so when SP1 was introduced it was 90 million.
"On July 12, 2011, the sales figure was refined to over 400 million end-user licenses and business installations"
So when they fixed it they'd shipped 400 million.
So 310 million windows were shipped, and Microsoft is claiming less than 10% market share for Europe? Seriously? They've previously claimed that 35% was Europe giving a number more than 100 million....
Re:I don't understand why they're doing this (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Looks like 100 million units (Score:4, Informative)
The bug was that if you didn't see the choice screen before installing SP1, you would never see it. Most of those 400 million were sold with the original Windows 7 with no service pack, and got the choice screen as soon as they clicked the blue e.