Microsoft And Europe Comes To Terms Over Browsers
The European Commission has launched a final round of consultations with stakeholders and consumers to confirm, or not, Microsoft’s proposals on competition.
After a long standoff that led to concrete proposals from the publisher, Brussels seems satisfied. The Commission has not disputed the final proposals of Microsoft. Better still, it will today begin a round of consultations to validate the proposal.
Brussels invites consumers, publishers and manufacturers to decide on the issue from 9 October, when the Commission will publish its opinion that by all logic should be positive. This would put an end to all pending proceedings against the Redmond company that last for years.
Too soon
The Redmond company has already received heavy fines for a total of 2,3 billion . The company therefore seeks to avoid this scenario repeating itself and that technical solutions are imposed.
Last September, the European Commissioner for Competition Neelie Kroes said she supported the conclusion of an amicable agreement with Microsoft before their term ends in 2009.
For those who missed it, Microsoft is the target of a complaint filed in 2007 for the bundling of Internet Explorer and Windows. After tough negotiations, Microsoft agreed that users have the choice of browser when you first install Windows via the ballot screen, a window with multiple choice (with Firefox, Opera, Chrome …).
Still, the plaintiffs say it is too early to complete the record. Opera Software is the source of the complaint has publicly worried this will to end a little prematurely. “We are also committed to concluding this matter but we want to ensure that the arrangement is effective. We believe that the solution is put on the table will not be an effective arrangement. We believe they (the European experts, editor’s note ) must listen and hear our comments, “said Hakon Wium Lie, chief technology officer at Opera.
How Microsoft plans to include the famous screen ballot is to be feared that Opera users take it for spam. “We’d like to bundle native screen, assuming the same pace as the latest Microsoft software rather than open it in a browser.
Google, Mozilla and the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) including IBM, Adobe, Nokia, Red Hat and Sun are members, have all also expressed their reservations about the recent proposals made by Microsoft.
Mitchell Baker, president of Mozilla, who believes that “even if everything is implemented in the current proposal of the most positive manner possible, Internet Explorer will always be a unique and privileged position.”
