Microsoft may just get its arse handed to it on a plate by the European Union according to BBC News. It was reported six months ago that Microsoft had complied with the rulings in filing plans and reports, so it would seem that the reason the EU is coming down on Microsoft so harshly is because it hasn’t complied with the provisions of the orders regarding its product, Windows. Because of this, Microsoft could be fined $2,500,000 per day. Per DAY. Retroactive to when the ruling decided it was not in compliance, about a year ago. That would be $912,500,000. Pretty darned close to the billion dollar mark. This is after the original fining of $655,000,000 in 2004, all in all about %1.5 of Bill Gates personal net worth. Once that is considered, the big numbers the EU is hitting Microsoft with aren’t all that big anymore.

Pressures from market forces and fines have never really swayed Microsoft in any direction after the release of the original Windows XP, however, and we’ll just have to see if that changes or not. Sure, it’ll have to unbundle its Media Player software for the Europeans, and believe me, it will, but with the head-honcho shakeups going on and fresh talent floating to the top of the corporate food chain, we may just see a little humanity come out of the whole situation. The reason I say that Microsoft will unbundle its Media Player software is because the choices are these:

1. Pay the fine, comply with the Union, and be the monopoly in Europe that it is everywhere else.
2. Pay the fine, refuse to unbundle the software assuring a monopoly in Europe, and fight on in the courts, getting fined again and again.
3. Pull out of Europe entirely, leaving a vast landscape for development of other software that will corrode the monopoly in the future.

The first is the only sensible course.

What I am leaving out of this picture so far is Vista’s eventual release and how it affects the landscape. Microsoft has been delaying the release of Vista so features can be implemented properly (like Aero) or removed (like WinFS). This process has taken long enough to really put Microsoft in a bind as Windows Vista Home (N) is the European version that complies with the EU’s directives, but the market here at home is quite clearly saying that another release of an operating system that has as many bugs on initial shipment as its previous offerings and it’ll just take its business elsewhere, thank you very much. The “hurry up and slow down” squeeze may see Vista come out the door only to find that it’s too early for the home market (buggy) but too late for the EU (big fines). Timing is pretty essential in this case.

[Jason Cutting]

[tags]jason cutting,microsoft lawsuit,eu lawsuit,eu vs ms,computer monopoly[/tags]