The Globalisation Institute based out of Brussels has submitted a startling report to the European Union, in which the report states that computers sold in European Union should not be bundled with Microsoft Windows. The report also goes on to state that the bundling of Microsoft Windows is not in the public interest. The report also states:

The submission comes after the Commission won a ruling supporting its existing antitrust action against Microsoft in the European Court of First Instance. The Institute argues that cheaper competitors are unable to benefit from their lower cost because consumers have already been forced to buy Windows. Windows’ dominant position both has slowed technical improvements and prevented new alternatives entering from the marketplace.

Operating systems, it says, are not a natural monopoly, requiring just one supplier. Instead, in a competitive market, there would be a broad compatibility between different supplier’s products. “Competition would encourage open standards and interoperability as vendors would, for competitive reasons, want their products to interact with other vendors’ products,” the submission says.

This is going to be very interesting to see if the EU goes along with the report. It doesn’t appear that the EU in general is a big Microsoft fan after fining the company some $613 million.

How do you think this will affect the Microsoft monopoly?

Comments welcome.

The article can be found here and the complete report can be viewed in .pdf format.

[tags]microsoft, european union, software[/tags]