Web browser interoperability: FSFE welcomes EC's decision and offers support

[Matthias Kirschner]

Perhaps you have not seen it yet. We published a press release about
EC's decision: "Web browser interoperability: FSFE welcomes EC's
decision and offers support" [1] (also already available in Ελληνικά and
Italiano):
    
    On the 16th of January the European Commission DG Competition
    reported that it had issued a statement of objections regarding
    Microsoft's tying of Internet Explorer (IE) to the Windows Operating
    System product family. This action builds on a complaint originally
    submitted by Opera, a European company involved in web browser
    development.

    Free Software Foundation Europe welcomes the European Commission's
    decision and offers its support in the coming anti-trust
    investigation. As stated previously in a letter to the European
    Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, anti-competitive behaviour is
    unacceptable, whether it occurs as 'tying' products with dominant
    market segments, or in circumventing standards and fair access.
    
    "Web browsers are becoming a critical platform for home and business
    computing," says Shane Coughlan, legal coordinator at FSFE. "The
    market previously failed to prevent unfair distortion of the desktop
    environment and we cannot allow such practices to be repeated."
   
    "It is important that no business in Europe is allowed to institute
    any policy of embracing, extending and extinguishing competition
    either through manipulation of interoperability information or
    through abuse of a dominant position by unfair tying and bundling of
    products," says Georg Greve, FSFE President. "Microsoft is a company
    that has previously been convicted of market distortion in the Work
    Group Server market, and we would welcome if the Commission also
    took up the antitrust complaint initially lodged in early 2006 by
    the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) regarding
    market abuse in other areas."

    For FSFE's previous statement on this issue please see: [2]

    For FSFE's letter to the European Competition Commissioner Neelie
    Kroes please see: [3]

I have seen it on some German media (sent that to fsfe-de at fsfeurope.org)
and also submitted it to fsdaily. If you like it, please vote for it on
[4].

Best wishes,
Matthias

  1. http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/2009/news-20090120-02.en.html
  2. http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/2007/news-20071221-01
  3. http://fsfeurope.org/documents/20071219-opera-antitrust.pdf
  4. http://www.fsdaily.com/Business/Web_browser_interoperability_FSFE_welcomes_ECs_decision_and_offers_support
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