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UPDATE: The Browser Choice Screen for Europe
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Posted by David Bowermaster
Administrator, Microsoft on the Issues
The European Commission issued a statement this morning welcoming Microsoft’s rollout of a browser choice screen for Windows PC users in Europe who have Internet Explorer as their default browser.
“Giving consumers the possibility to switch or try a browser other than that included in Windows will bring more competition and innovation in this important area to the benefit of European internet users,” said European Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia.
As detailed in Dave Heiner’s February 19 blog post, below, the choice screen presents a list of leading browsers and enables users to install and set any of the browsers as their default. The browers are presented in random order.
To read the Commission’s full statement, click here.
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U.S., European Commission Clear Microsoft-Yahoo! Agreement
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Posted by Brad Smith
Microsoft Senior Vice President and General Counsel
and Michael Callahan
Yahoo! Executive Vice President and General Counsel
As was broadly reported this morning, both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission have completed their reviews of the Microsoft-Yahoo! search agreement and cleared the transaction without restrictions.
We appreciate the thorough reviews conducted by the DOJ and the Commission and we welcome the thoughtful decisions reached by each agency. We also commend the collaborative efforts the regulators undertook to understand the search advertising market. Likewise, we are grateful for the efforts of regulators in Australia, Brazil and Canada who previously cleared the agreement, as well as those regulators we continue to work with in Korea, Taiwan and Japan.
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Interoperability: The Other Side of Our Settlement with the European Commission
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Posted by Dave Heiner
Vice President and Deputy General Counsel
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On Wednesday the European Commission announced its decision to approve a resolution of its long-running competition law inquiry concerning Microsoft. Commissioner Kroes remarked that the decision has the potential to herald a “new, more positive” era in Microsoft’s relationship with the Commission. We are obviously very pleased to reach this milestone. We’ve posted the details here.
While most of the press attention has focused on the Commission’s decision regarding Web browser software in Windows, the Commission also announced Microsoft’s agreement to implement a series of measures to promote interoperability. The interoperability piece is important too because consumers of everything from cell phones to mainframe computers want assurances that their products will work seamlessly with other devices, software and services. In speeches in June 2008 and this October, Commissioner Kroes outlined a vision for how leading firms should address competition law concerns relating to interoperability. Commissioner Kroes championed industry standards as “the foundation of interoperability.” Products from different firms can work well together when they implement common, well-designed industry standards. In addition, when firms innovate in a proprietary manner, Commissioner Kroes observed, interoperability can be facilitated if firms (i) disclose sufficient technical information to enable other firms to build interoperable products; (ii) provide other firms with a remedy if the technical information disclosed is not complete and accurate and (iii) charge fair royalty rates for any intellectual property that is needed.
As part of the settlement announced Wednesday, Microsoft has pledged to implement this approach to interoperability across all of our most widely used products—Windows, Windows Server, Office, Exchange and SharePoint.
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European Commission to Market Test Microsoft Proposals on Web Browser Choice
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UPDATE: October 7, 2009 - 4:15 a.m. Pacific
Posted by David Bowermaster
Administrator, Microsoft on the Issues
We have issued an updated and more detailed statement from General Counsel Brad Smith on today’s EC announcement on PressPass.
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The European Commission today announced that it will market test a set of measures Microsoft has offered to address competition law concerns relating to Windows, Office and other high volume Microsoft products.
In response, Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith issued the following statement to the press:
“We welcome today’s announcement by the European Commission to move forward with formal market testing of Microsoft’s proposal relating to web browser choice in Europe. We also welcome the opportunity to take the next step in the process regarding our proposal to promote interoperability with a broad range of our products.
“Today’s announcement follows our publication of earlier drafts of these two proposals in July and broad feedback from across our industry to the Commission in August. Microsoft then engaged in extensive discussions with the Commission over the last month, during which we agreed to make numerous changes to improve these proposals. For Microsoft, today’s decision is a significant step toward closing a decade-long chapter of competition law concerns in Europe.”
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Windows 7 and Browser Choice in Europe
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Posted by Dave Heiner
Vice President and Deputy General Counsel
A week ago the European Commission said it welcomed our proposal to provide Windows users a “consumer ballot screen” to select the Web browser of their choice to surf the Internet. We believe this approach addresses the Commission’s previously stated competition law concerns regarding our inclusion of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) browser in Windows.
I’d like to use this post to explain in more detail how the consumer ballot screen would work. But first I’d like to update you on our Windows 7 launch plans for Europe, which I blogged about on June 11.
As I explained at the time, we are committed to making Windows 7 available in Europe at the same time it is available to consumers worldwide on October 22.
To meet that goal, and in light of the Commission’s pending legal inquiry of our inclusion of IE in Windows, we decided last month that we would ship a unique version of Windows 7 in Europe—which we dubbed Windows 7 “E”—that would not include a Web browser. Instead, we decided to offer IE separately and on an easy-to-install basis to both computer manufacturers and users who wanted the Microsoft browser.
We have now decided to alter that launch plan. In the wake of last week’s developments, as well as continuing feedback on Windows 7 E that we have received from computer manufacturers and other business partners, I’m pleased to report that we will ship the same version of Windows 7 in Europe in October that we will ship in the rest of the world.
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Microsoft’s Proposal to the European Commission
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Posted by David Bowermaster
Administrator, Microsoft on the Issues
Microsoft recently made a proposal to the European Commission to address competition law concerns that the Commission has raised with regard to Internet Explorer and the interoperability of certain Microsoft products. The Commission issued a statement concerning the proposal today, and we subsequently issued a statement from General Counsel Brad Smith.
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Working to Fulfill our Legal Obligations in Europe for Windows 7
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UPDATE: June 11, 2009 – 5:30 p.m. Pacific
Posted by Dave Heiner
Vice President and Deputy General Counsel
[Update to my original post earlier today below - I’ve added more historical context for readers who might be new to the issue – D.H.]
Earlier today CNET reported that Microsoft had sent a memo to computer manufacturers and retailers about our plans for Windows 7 in Europe. We’re getting quite a few calls on this, so we thought it would be helpful to explain our plans.
First, a little context. For the past three years Microsoft has been working to develop the next version of our Windows operating system, Windows 7. We’ve taken feedback from literally millions of beta customers to ensure that Windows 7 delivers the power, simplicity and ease-of-use that customers want. We’ve also worked hard to ensure that Windows 7 will promote choice and competition in the computer industry, in keeping with our Windows Principles. We’ve held hands-on workshops with hundreds of industry partners to ensure they have the information they need to build products that work well with Windows 7. Customers running Windows 7 will be able to choose compatible products from among literally thousands of computer manufacturers, peripheral manufacturers, and software vendors.
The worldwide launch of Windows 7 is fast approaching, but a pending legal case raises concerns about the sufficiency of competition among the Web browsers that are available to Windows users in Europe. In January the European Commission provided its preliminary view that Microsoft’s “bundling” of Internet Explorer in Windows violated European competition law.
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Comparing Search Data Retention Policies of Major Search Engines Before the EU
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Posted By Brendon Lynch
Director of Privacy Strategy
(Re-posted from The Data Privacy Imperative blog)
Today, I testified before the Article 29 Working Party, the Europe Commission group charged with providing advice to the EU and member states on the protection of personal data. The Article 29 Working Party hearing examined the data anonymization practices of major search companies.
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Surf the Net – Think Privacy!
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Posted by Thomas Myrup Kristensen
EU Internet Policy Director
What does it take to ensure companies make great products that enhance privacy? What does it take to ensure that consumers understand their privacy rights and feel comfortable in an online world? In short, what does it take to build a real culture of online trust?
At Microsoft we believe privacy shouldn’t be an afterthought, but something that’s built into products from the design phase onwards. We feel strongly about empowering our customers to be in control of their own information, and with this conviction we design all our products and services.
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Microsoft and the European Commission
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UPDATE: January 17, 2009, 10:15 a.m. Pacific -- The European Commission has commented on the Statement of Objections it sent to Microsoft Thursday. You can read the full text on the Commission’s Web site.
Posted by David Bowermaster
Administrator, Microsoft on the Issues
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