Great headline: “Europe Fines Microsoft $1.3 Billion“
It’s not just Belgium, France, or Germany. It’s Europe. And very European reasoning as well:
The commission had ordered Microsoft on March 24, 2004 to disclose within 120 days information which would allow rival vendors to interoperate with Windows. But antitrust officials said the company had sought too much in royalties and patent fees for competitors to use the data.
Essentially, Microsoft was in this position because their product was so good. Other people wanted to be able to work with that product, given that it was so good. But that dastardly Microsoft was too busy thinking about profits and not about letting their “rival vendors” make money too. Jerks.
