The European Union's new complaint against Microsoft really takes one back. Like, a decade or so.
Its objection--that bundling a browser into the operating system violates antitrust law--is the same one that U.S. regulators raised in 1996.
The newest allegations stem from a 2007 complaint by Norway's Opera that Microsoft was hurting competition by including Internet Explorer in Windows and by not better adhering to Web standards.
What is most odd about the EU taking up the issue is its timing. The EU spent years going after Microsoft on antitrust matters related specifically to its bundling of products with Windows and didn't focus on the browser. Plus, the move comes as Microsoft's browser share is at its lowest point since the Netscape days.
Firefox is particularly strong in Europe, the area over which the EU has oversight. According to XitiMonitor, IE had a 59.5 percent share in Europe as of November, compared with 31.1 percent for Firefox. Opera had about 5 percent, and Safari half of that. Microsoft lost a full 5 percentage points of market share since April alone.
That doesn't mean that Microsoft will have an easy time in Brussels. As it has shown in the past, the EU is willing to take a tough line with Microsoft, and it is not averse to fining the company and issuing harsh decrees.
David Anderson, an antitrust attorney and partner with Berwin Leighton Paisner in Brussels, said that Microsoft may well face a challenge ahead in persuading the Commission to set aside its preliminary assessment, saying the commission tends to review matters thoroughly before issuing such "statements of objections."
Further he noted that the commission staff may feel emboldened after having won its previous case against Microsoft. It also has the same set of attorneys that worked on that case pursuing the IE issue, Anderson said.
Microsoft is choosing its words carefully at this point, electing not to go beyond a statement that is more procedural than confrontational. But I can only imagine the words being used behind closed doors in Redmond.
In defending itself, Microsoft will find itself against one particularly familiar foe. Opera's chairman, William Raduchel, is a longtime Microsoft critic, dating back to his time at Sun Microsystems, which brought antitrust actions of its own against Microsoft before eventually settling.
For those who need a refresher course in the browser wars, Netscape had the dominant program in the Web's early days, controlling more than half the market as late as 1997. By 1999, though, Microsoft's IE had more than three-fourths of the market.
It has held the dominant position ever since, accounting for greater than 90 percent of the market through 2004, when Firefox began to make serious inroads. Its share has been on the decline since, according to Net Applications.
Microsoft's browser had an 87 percent share in 2005, but by 2007, its share had dropped to 79 percent. Last year alone, IE's market share dropped from 75 percent in January to 68 percent by December.
source: Cnet.com
Its objection--that bundling a browser into the operating system violates antitrust law--is the same one that U.S. regulators raised in 1996.
The newest allegations stem from a 2007 complaint by Norway's Opera that Microsoft was hurting competition by including Internet Explorer in Windows and by not better adhering to Web standards.
What is most odd about the EU taking up the issue is its timing. The EU spent years going after Microsoft on antitrust matters related specifically to its bundling of products with Windows and didn't focus on the browser. Plus, the move comes as Microsoft's browser share is at its lowest point since the Netscape days.
Firefox is particularly strong in Europe, the area over which the EU has oversight. According to XitiMonitor, IE had a 59.5 percent share in Europe as of November, compared with 31.1 percent for Firefox. Opera had about 5 percent, and Safari half of that. Microsoft lost a full 5 percentage points of market share since April alone.
That doesn't mean that Microsoft will have an easy time in Brussels. As it has shown in the past, the EU is willing to take a tough line with Microsoft, and it is not averse to fining the company and issuing harsh decrees.
David Anderson, an antitrust attorney and partner with Berwin Leighton Paisner in Brussels, said that Microsoft may well face a challenge ahead in persuading the Commission to set aside its preliminary assessment, saying the commission tends to review matters thoroughly before issuing such "statements of objections."
Further he noted that the commission staff may feel emboldened after having won its previous case against Microsoft. It also has the same set of attorneys that worked on that case pursuing the IE issue, Anderson said.
Microsoft is choosing its words carefully at this point, electing not to go beyond a statement that is more procedural than confrontational. But I can only imagine the words being used behind closed doors in Redmond.
In defending itself, Microsoft will find itself against one particularly familiar foe. Opera's chairman, William Raduchel, is a longtime Microsoft critic, dating back to his time at Sun Microsystems, which brought antitrust actions of its own against Microsoft before eventually settling.
For those who need a refresher course in the browser wars, Netscape had the dominant program in the Web's early days, controlling more than half the market as late as 1997. By 1999, though, Microsoft's IE had more than three-fourths of the market.
It has held the dominant position ever since, accounting for greater than 90 percent of the market through 2004, when Firefox began to make serious inroads. Its share has been on the decline since, according to Net Applications.
Microsoft's browser had an 87 percent share in 2005, but by 2007, its share had dropped to 79 percent. Last year alone, IE's market share dropped from 75 percent in January to 68 percent by December.
source: Cnet.com
2 comments:
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