WASHINGTON D.C. ? Tuesday?s antitrust ruling against Microsoft by a European Union court sends a troubling message about the future of competition and innovation in Europe and around the world. The penalties imposed on Microsoft, including a fine of $665 million, threaten to chill investment in new technologies and impose billion of dollars of costs on European consumers and independent software developers, experts said.
In addition to the fine, Microsoft will be forced to separate its Windows Media Player from its operating system and disclose parts of its internal software code for server applications to other companies. While these changes in the company?s software and intellectual property protections will impose huge costs on the IT industry and its customers, the alleged benefits of the ruling is far from clear, said Clyde Wayne Crews Jr., Director of Technology Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
?Much like their U.S. counterparts, European antitrust officials have done a remarkably poor job of providing tangible evidence of any harm to competitors that couldn?t be more reasonably ascribed to the legitimate success of popular products and a smart business model,? Crews said. ?In the case of consumers, the case is even weaker and the damage more worrying. In the end, it?s consumers rather any particular company that will suffer most when innovation and creativity become liabilities in the marketplace.?
CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.
