Diary Entry

Microsoft concedes, complies with EU antitrust ruling

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After losing the appeal and suffering daily penalty payments for years, Microsoft has finally conceded to the European commission. This after withdrawing its appeal in the South Korea antitrust case last week. The “substantial changes” to Microsoft’s behavior can be boiled down as follows:

  • Rival software developers (including open-source) can now access and use Microsoft interoperability information
  • Royalties for this information will be reduced to a one-off payment of €10,000 / $14,000
  • Royalties for a world-wide license to use Microsoft’s product and patents will be reduced from 5.95% to just 0.4%

While Microsoft can technically still appeal the September ruling on the original 2004 decision, it certainly looks like this dog has been beaten into obedient, doe-eyed submission.

 

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