EU Court Orders Microsoft to Pay up Most of Record Fine

[Jack]

Operating system giant Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) became the first high profile victim of aggressive European Union antitrust enforcement (but it would not be the last). Slapped with almost $2B USD in fines, the company was lashed for browser bundling and other tactics viewed by the European Commission regulators as anticompetitive.

Microsoft appealed the fine, but the results were less than what it was hoping for. The appeals body -- the General Court of the European Union announced [PDF] this week its decision to cut the €899M fine to a mere €860M ($1.1B USD), a reduction of €39 (~$48M USD).

A Microsoft spokesperson told Reuters it was "disappointed with the court's ruling."

Read more: http://www.dailytech.com/EU+Court+Orders+Microsoft+to+Pay+up+Most+of+Record+Fine/article25045.htm

 

[samit]

2 billion USD fine just for including media player and internet explorer in windows.....if you don't want to use it...simply uninstall and use some other products.....simple as that....a fine it doesn't make any sense....

 

[ZeroDay]

2 billion USD fine just for including media player and internet explorer in windows.....if you don't want to use it...simply uninstall and use some other products.....simple as that....a fine it doesn't make any sense....

I guess it may be in breach of the monopoly/antitrust laws. wether you use the products or not is besides the point, If the company is not offering the end user choice that's when those laws come into full swing.

I agree it's a bit of a joke, but I suppose 'They' know better than us, after all we're just the consumers what does it matter what we think lol.