MONTI’S REVENGE

The European Commission is, at best, a misunderstood law-making body. In some of its more inspired moments, it has set definitions for the banana (based on curvature), and chocolate (milk please, no corn oil). Basically, it sets policy for 15 (soon to be 25) European countries of the EU. The countries then take these unifying strokes of genius back to their countries and summarily ignore them until they are threatened with fines.
It also has a Competition Commission, led by a fiery Italian Mario Monti, who fancies himself the big trust-buster. For the past five years, he’s had Microsoft in his cross-hairs, vowing to do what the US regulators failed to: introduce measures that will stop Microsoft’s march to global domination. Nobody has given poor Monti much of a chance seeing as it’s Microsoft and he’s, well, from the EU. But Monti’s regulators have achieved a rare bit of consensus this week from member states. All 15 say Microsoft is an abusive monopoly (as it pertains to its dominance in the server and media player markets). It’s a crucial development if the Competition Commission is to get a precedent-setting ruling and can issue a hefty fine on Microsoft. The development even managed to grab the attention of the big man himself – Steve Ballmer. Ballmer raced to Brussels on Tuesday for last-ditch talks before next week’s decision. Whether the EU will have any success in opening up competition in the server market is, at best, a long shot. But it’s fun to see Microsoft squirm.

Posted by bernhardwarner, March 17, 2004 04:33 PM | | TrackBack