Oh snap!

[chrysis]

European Court of First Instance upholds a lower court judgment against Microsoft for abusing its dominant power in the market (in Europe) and upholds the fine of $689.4 million that accompanied the judgment.

Eat it, Gates.

Comments

[edgehopper]

Argh--the article lists 2 complaints against Microsoft, neither of which should be actionable:

1. Refusing to disclose a trade secret (confidential server protocols), and

2. Bundling Windows Media Player with Windows, driving RealNetworks out of the market.

As to the first, I find it interesting that while the world strongly protects trade secrets, apparently large companies can be stripped of that protection for being big. As to the second, Windows Media Player is beating out RealPlayer because RealPlayer sucks and hasn't improved in years while Media Player has been adding useful features, not because of bundling.

Antitrust laws are supposed to protect consumers, not failed competitors. Europe seems to have forgotten that.

[chrysis]

Europe forgets a lot of things.
But, you know what they didn't forget?
To tell Bill Gates to eat it! :P

Joking aside, in the wonderful world of technology, could the dominant protocols (necessary for designing compatible software) be analogized to an essential facility under antitrust law?

I'm still new to this area of law, but Microsoft does have a very dominant position when it comes to computer and operating systems. Does this market position allow it to enforce a trade barrier of compatibility for other software markets?