Microsoft is accused by EU again

[Flisker]

The European Commission has accused Microsoft of harming competition by bundling its Explorer web browser with its Windows operating system.

The commission said it had reached the preliminary view that the US software giant had undermined consumer choice and infringed EU rules.

Microsoft and the European Union have engaged in legal battles over competition issues for years.



Last year, the EU fined Microsoft 899m euros ($1.4bn; £680.9m).



Browser battle

In its statement on Friday the Commission said: "Microsoft's tying of Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system harms competition between web browsers, undermines product innovation and ultimately reduces consumer choice."



Microsoft that it was studying the commission's preliminary finding, and did not rule out requesting a formal hearing.



It has been given eight weeks to reply.



The US software firm controls the majority of the web-browsing market through its Explorer browser.



Analysts say the company has diversified enormously and is now no longer so reliant on its Windows operating system, with revenue coming from Xbox sales and server software.



In February 2008, the EU fined Microsoft 899m euros for defying sanctions imposed on it for anti-competitive behaviour.



The penalty - which was then one of the largest imposed by the European Commission - came after Microsoft failed to comply with an earlier 2004 ruling that it had abused its market position.

The EU and Microsoft have clashed several times over the years


Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7834792.stm

one word... Wow.

Could this mean IE will stop being shipped with Windows in the EU?

[FlyingJesus]

Surely they're allowed to put their own software in with a system :S

[Flisker]

Apparently it's dominating the browser market.

[GommeInc]

... Who cares? No-one I know cares about this, and there is no reason to. If you don't want to use IE, you can use any browser with minimal effort. IE is there as a safe option for compatibility issues for some programs and internet features which don't work in Firefox or other browsers, which still do exist :/

[Hitman]

Surely they're allowed to put their own software in with a system :S

Just what I was thinking... if they didn't put IE with Windows then we wouldn't be able to download Firefox or Google Chrome anyway, unless they included it with Windows, which is silly... Macs come with Safari and not Firefox aswell (NOT causing an argument here just stating).

Hmm.

[FlyingJesus]

if they didn't put IE with Windows then we wouldn't be able to download Firefox or Google Chrome anyway

Haha oh yeah. No browser unless you buy a disc with it or something :S that'd be ultimately crap

[Flisker]

If they do remove IE from Windows, then surely they will make a link with lists of browsers to download like:

Internet Explorer
Firefox
Google Chrome
Safari
Opera

[Turbocom]

I'll be honest with you, people are just trying to get money out of Microsoft. They are by far the most successful company out there for the computer and entertainment systems out there. This is almost like the guy trying to sue them over a scratched disk. Microsoft will win again, as the always do.

They are allowed to put there own stuff it like common how much ** do people put out there.

And when I say most successful its true, apple sales are dropping due to the economy

[scottish]

EU must be so ******* stupid, that's like saying "Oh when you sell a dell computer you can't give a dell monitor with it, its dominating the monitor market" like wth stupid *****.

[Captain]

EU are a joke. Why is the UK even apart of this :\