GigaOM has the skinny on the EU confirming its original €280.5 million non-compliance fine. More interesting is the internal email from Microsoft legal eagle Brad Smith which was leaked to Alec Saunders wherein he says:
In our view, the issue here is not about a lack of compliance, it’s about a lack of clarity about what the Commission’s expectations were for “complete and accurate technical specifications.”…To meet the demands of the schedule, a team of more than 300 employees was assembled, including some of the company’s most senior engineers…we will appeal this fine. We have great respect for the Commission, but we do not believe any fine – let alone a fine of this magnitude – is warranted given the lack of clarity in the Commission’s original decision and our diligent, good-faith efforts to comply over the past two years.
Commenters to Alec’s site think Microsoft is right but this should be seen for what it is – a PR stunt designed to garner a sympathy vote. Nice try but it won’t cut any ice in Europe. After years of wrangling, no-one cares about Microsoft’s view.
While it is fair to say the EU has demonstrated a great deal of cluelessness in handling the technical issues, it made the fines issue very clear from the get go. It is merely doing what it said it would do.
Microsoft has lost every step of the way yet still persists in attempting to avoid coughing up. What it fails to realise is that bureaucratic it may be, but the EU is prepared to pursue this to the wire. I don’t care what others may say, pecuniary punishment remains one of the few ways to make aberrant companies of Microsoft’s size toe the line.
Microsoft does itself no credit by bleating to the world about its EU compliance problems. They would not have arisen in the first place if it had not adopted monopolistic bully boy tactics. It’s the kind of thinking that locks up value for shareholders and then glosses it over as funds for investment. It’s the kind of thinking that leads to recent heavy handed attempts to pressure corporations into software ‘audits’ clearly designed to extract license fees.
After all the years of anti-competitive lawsuits, employing and carelessly losing the services of Robert Scoble as a blogger prepared to valiantly fight Microsoft’s corner, the commercial reality remains the same. Nothing much has changed in Seattle has it?
And they wonder why so many companies are fleeing to open source software? Doh.
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