140 lines
5.4 KiB
HTML
140 lines
5.4 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
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<html newsdate="2012-06-27">
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<version>1</version>
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<head>
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<title>Record fine against Microsoft upheld by European Court of Justice</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>Record fine against Microsoft upheld by European Court of Justice</h1>
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<p>
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The European Court of Justice has ordered Microsoft to finally pay a record
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fine for using its near-monopoly position on the desktop to keep rivals out of the
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workgroup server market. Four years ago, the European Commission slapped
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the software giant with a fine of 899 million Euros for its anticompetitive
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behaviour. In today's ruling, the ECJ ruled that this unprecedented fine
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was largely justified.
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</p>
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<p>
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For a decade, the Free Software Foundation Europe has <a
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href="/activities/ms-vs-eu/ms-vs-eu.html">participated
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in the case</a>, also on behalf of the Samba team, which provides a
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Free Software workgroup server competing with Microsoft's proprietary
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product.
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</p>
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<p>
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"Microsoft remains a convicted monopolist, and was reduced to
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negotiating the terms of its punishment," says Karsten Gerloff,
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President of the Free Software Foundation Europe. "The court has
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reduced the fine by less than five percent. The European Commission
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was right in being tough on Microsoft. We have worked hard to support
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the Commission in this case, and are extremely proud of the victory
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we've achieved. We are grateful for the Samba team and all the others
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who invested so much effort along with us, and hope that the
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Commission will continue to push for an open, competitive IT market."
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</p>
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<p>
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The case shows that Microsoft has used patents as an excuse to not
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reveal their mundane changes to public protocols. The court recognised
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that the company was wrong to refuse to give access to the
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interoperability information unless a party took a license for patents
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too. This is an example of how software patents are a real and present
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damage to competition even if used out of court.
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</p>
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<p>
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"We have successfully asserted the rights of Free Software developers
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like the Samba Team to access interoperability information, but
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Microsoft refused our legitimate demands until the very end," says
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Carlo Piana, General Counsel for the Free Software Foundation
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Europe. "Today's decision establishes that we were right once
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again. Receiving the interoperability information was our right, not a
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concession by Microsoft."
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</p>
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<p>
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The threat to competition has not disappeared. Microsoft still attempts
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to bring increasing parts of the technology market under its control,
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and other companies such as Apple are following its lead. The company
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still uses patents to <a
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href="/activities/swpat/letter-20101222.html">put
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rivals under pressure and profit from their work</a>. It also uses new
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approaches to <a
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href="/freesoftware/secure-boot.html">restrict
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device owners from installing software of their choice</a> on their
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hardware. To counter these threats the Free Software Foundation Europe
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will continue to work for a free information society, and for the
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interests of Free Software users and developers everywhere.
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</p>
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<h2>Background</h2>
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<p>
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After the 2004 decision of the European Commission was upheld by the
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General Court of the European Court of Justice, in 2007 Microsoft
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finally complied fully with the provision to release timely and
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accurate interoperability informations with competitors under
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so-called "Reasonable And Non Discriminatory (RAND)" conditions.
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</p>
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<p>
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After Microsoft did not fulfil the Commission's requirements, the
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Commission finally set the fine for noncompliance to EUR 899
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million, assessing that up and until October 2007 Microsoft fell
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short of its obligations to offer RAND conditions.
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</p>
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<p>
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Microsoft contested this assessment and appealed to the European Court
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of Justice. The company claimed that because the information contained
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in the release of the information was covered by patents – and thus innovative – it was
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entitled to charge rivals substantial amount of money for access to
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this information. Not having received sufficient guidance, it was
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within its rights to set a high price for interoperability information,
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and in good faith charge running royalties even for the "trade
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secret" part, which was from the license for patents upon
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express request from the Commission.
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</p>
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<p>
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FSFE and the Samba Team (which is a licensee of the interoperability
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information, or "WSPP", through the Protocol Freedom Information
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Foundation) intervened in the case to deny that the information was
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"innovative". The only value attached to the information was to allow
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a drop-in replacement of network services to be created through the
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discovery of trivial details of the protocols. Whereas the general
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concepts, structure and engineering decisions were both well
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understood and not ground-breaking if taken individually, nor was the
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idea of combining them new or innovative. The Court
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upheld the finding of the Commission, finding that: "Microsoft in
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practice continued to refuse Free Software developers all access to
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the interoperability information, which was not something that the
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letter recognised it could legitimately do."
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</p>
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<h3>Contact</h3>
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Karsten Gerloff<br/>
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President<br/>
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<email>gerloff@fsfe.org</email><br/>
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+49 176 9690 4298
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<p>If you wish to receive further updates, subscribe to our press release mailing list at <a href="/press">https://fsfe.org/press</a>.</p>
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</body>
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<tags>
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<tag key="front-page"/>
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<tag key="microsoft"/>
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<tag key="european-court-justice"/>
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<tag key="legal"/>
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<tag key="antitrust"/>
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</tags>
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</html>
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