EU Slams Microsoft Over Lack of Browser Choice

[Hevva]

EU Slams Microsoft Over Lack of Browser Choice

European regulators say Windows needs to offer more than just Internet Explorer.

Three hazy, distant years ago, the European Union Commission signed a deal with Microsoft in which the software giant agreed to start packaging various non-Internet Explorer web browsers in with Windows. Doing this would save the company from breaching the EU's antitrust laws at the same time as saving Europeans from having to venture into Internet Explorer against their will. If Microsoft failed to abide by this agreement, it could be subject to fines of up to 10% of its annual global revenue. As of this week, Microsoft has officially failed to obey the agreement.

In an formal notice of warning, the EU Commission notes that the "browser choice" screen (above) that Microsoft designed to comply with the terms of the original agreement was nonfunctional for as many as 28 million customers between February 2009 and July 2012. Microsoft blames the outage on a technical error, adding in a statement that it "takes the matter very seriously" and takes "responsibility for what happened."

Following this notice, Microsoft now has four weeks to respond to the charge as it sees fit. Once this time period is up, the Commission will decide how serious the breach was and what kind of fine, if any, it will impose. The upper limit is 10% of Microsoft's annual revenue, which is kind of an eyewatering sum of money. Given that the European Union has to date fined Microsoft €1.64 billion (US$2.1 billion) for various offenses, a fine for this particular breach wouldn't mark a huge deviation from the norm.

In a separate announcement, the EU Commission also announced that it would not be pursuing an antitrust case against Microsoft for only having Internet Explorer pre-packaged on its Windows 8 and Windows RT tablet devices. While I am not a lawyer and will (sadly, probably, crushingly) never be one, my uneducated guess for the reasoning behind this would be that Microsoft's share of the tablet market is small enough that the Commission need not involve itself.

Expect to hear more as the case continues, especially regarding how quickly Microsoft will fix its "browser choice" screen. European Windows users shouldn't have to have that one trip to Internet Explorer to download Firefox or Chrome. Isn't the debt crisis enough? Save us this one last indignity, Microsoft.


Source: BBC News [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20066770]



Permalink

 

[Slayer_2]

Damn, I want to live in EU now. They seem to have MS by the balls, we should get this option in North America.

 

[mattaui]

This never made any sense to me and continues to make no sense to me. Why do they need to offer anything? Are they requiring, oh I don't know, Apple to provide a choice of browser on their iPhone?

The mere existence of IE on my PC doesn't prevent me from installing Chrome, Firefox, Opera or anything else.

I'd say this was an outdated concept except that it never, ever made any sense to me. They might as well complain that there's no choice of Notepad or Solitaire providers, because I'm stuck with what MSFT gives me when I install it, no matter that I can install all the notepad clones or games I want after the fact.

 

[Fappy]

I have to use Explorer for 5 seconds to download Chrome! OH THE HUMANITY!

 

[MiskWisk]

Usually, I'm inclined to be somewhat biased against the EU (what with the euro pretty much cursing the world with massive uncertainty damaging other currencies) but I will side with them on this one as Microsoft agreed to it and then broke the terms. The terms may or may not make much sense to me as the idea behind why people can't use IE to get another browser but they were agreed to and were then broken.

 

[disgruntledgamer]

Is using Internet Explorer for 3mins until you download Fire Fox really that big of a deal?
I wish corporations would bend over backwards in the West like they do for EU.

 

[lacktheknack]

Why the hell is this a monopolistic issue?

What, are they going to fine them for not offering Microsoft Office AND OpenOffice on starting builds?

They should include Paint AND Paint.net, while they're at it.

And maybe Microsoft Sam reader AS WELL AS a Brian Blessed reader.

 

[the doom cannon]

This never made any sense to me and continues to make no sense to me. Why do they need to offer anything? Are they requiring, oh I don't know, Apple to provide a choice of browser on their iPhone?

The mere existence of IE on my PC doesn't prevent me from installing Chrome, Firefox, Opera or anything else.

I'd say this was an outdated concept except that it never, ever made any sense to me. They might as well complain that there's no choice of Notepad or Solitaire providers, because I'm stuck with what MSFT gives me when I install it, no matter that I can install all the notepad clones or games I want after the fact.

Yea I was thinking about the Apple thing. They only come loaded with Safari, so why don't they have these same requirements? Conspiracy I say!!!

 

[Fr]anc[is]

The mere existence of IE on my PC doesn't prevent me from installing Chrome, Firefox, Opera or anything else.

For now it doesn't. If Microsoft succeeds at turning Windows into a closed platform, they can exclude whatever the hell they like without consequence.

 

[Falterfire]

I'm with the people who think this is slightly silly: As long as Microsoft in no way hampers the rather trivial process of downloading Chrome/Firefox/Opera, I don't see why coming with IE installed is an issue. When you buy an operating system, there shouldn't be a problem if the preloaded apps are from the people who make the system.

 

[esperandote]

in the netscape era microsoft won a trial about not bundling IE with windows, wich would make more sense that bundling other browsers

 

[Another]

Whoa Whoa Whoa! Hold up here! You mean that Internet Explorer is a web browser?!? I just thought it was a utility to get a web browser!

 

[Hevva]

This never made any sense to me and continues to make no sense to me. Why do they need to offer anything? Are they requiring, oh I don't know, Apple to provide a choice of browser on their iPhone?

The mere existence of IE on my PC doesn't prevent me from installing Chrome, Firefox, Opera or anything else.

I'd say this was an outdated concept except that it never, ever made any sense to me. They might as well complain that there's no choice of Notepad or Solitaire providers, because I'm stuck with what MSFT gives me when I install it, no matter that I can install all the notepad clones or games I want after the fact.

Yea I was thinking about the Apple thing. They only come loaded with Safari, so why don't they have these same requirements? Conspiracy I say!!!

I think the thing is that A) Microsoft, in the EU anyway, has by far the biggest market share in home computing, and B) Windows is spread across a wide variety of machines made by companies other than Microsoft. So that gives them an unfair advantage that, left untouched, could start to look something like an attempt at a monopoly if you squint at it. I think. Or, well, conspiracy. Mmm, tasty conspiracy.

 

[Oirish_Martin]

Well, I'm sure there will an equal amount of shite being thrown at Apple for only including Safari on iOS.

*waits*

 

[gardian06]

This never made any sense to me and continues to make no sense to me. Why do they need to offer anything? Are they requiring, oh I don't know, Apple to provide a choice of browser on their iPhone?

The mere existence of IE on my PC doesn't prevent me from installing Chrome, Firefox, Opera or anything else.

I'd say this was an outdated concept except that it never, ever made any sense to me. They might as well complain that there's no choice of Notepad or Solitaire providers, because I'm stuck with what MSFT gives me when I install it, no matter that I can install all the notepad clones or games I want after the fact.

you need to remember that for the most part this agreement was not meant for people that know, and understand the vast workings of how freeware programs like firefox, chrome, and to a lesser extent Opera function, or even exist. this is designed to "protect" those people that might feel forced to use IE, but not realize that there were other options.

I have to use Explorer for 5 seconds to download Chrome! OH THE HUMANITY!

5 seconds what throughput are you pushing? see above

Is using Internet Explorer for 3mins until you download Fire Fox really that big of a deal?
I wish corporations would bend over backwards in the West like they do for EU.

well the reason for this beside above is based around the way that EU laws are structured. basically if an external entity wishes to do business in the EU it must do so by entering into an agreement with the EU trade commission, and in many cases have to enter into corporate contracts. in the US it is more a matter of "free enterprise" where any company can do business in the country with the only limitations being to copyrights, patents, and IP otherwise its fare game.

 

[csoloist]

Duuudes - this is just a relic from back when MS was pulling shenanigans, Apple was all but dead, Linux was only for servers and Nokia was the metaphorical 800 pound gorilla of the cellular industry.

Times change, bureaucracy stays the same.

 

[The White Hunter]

Damn, I want to live in EU now. They seem to have MS by the balls, we should get this option in North America.

You should but it's an American company in America. So long as it makes money for America the US government will give no shit what it does and does not do. It's like that whole Apple vs Samsung thing that was decided by a court about an hours drive from where Apple's lair is. We all knew how Samsung had no hope of winning that mess.

Though here it's more clean cut. I don't care about the monopolistic bullshit but dear god save people that awful trip into IE to get a good browser!

I keep the latest firefox install data on a pen drive to avoid that horrific torture.

 

[mattaui]

anc[is]

The mere existence of IE on my PC doesn't prevent me from installing Chrome, Firefox, Opera or anything else.

For now it doesn't. If Microsoft succeeds at turning Windows into a closed platform, they can exclude whatever the hell they like without consequence.

For now, huh? So, they haven't done it since 1995 when IE launched, when is this dark future going to be upon us?

And that's leaving aside the ridiculous concept that MSFT would ever make the PC a 'closed system'. Once again, that's been an option of theirs for decades. Even Apple hasn't ever done that with their desktop OS. Microsoft's bread and butter has long been Microsoft Office, yet I've always been able to install other, much cheaper programs on my PC to do the same thing, just to use another example.

What about mobile computing? Is it a crime for Microsoft or Apple to restrict what I put on my phone? Because that certainly happens. A lot. Where's the government to save all these poor, clueless consumers? Won't someone think of the clueless consumers?