Can’t argue with a word like extraordinary! Microsoft may already have acknowledged its mistake and agreed to pay the massive penalty levied on it by the European Union, but analysts around the world are weighing in on the recent ruling.
The company was fined $731 million last week for failing to provide European users with a browser choice screen in Windows 7 — Service Pack 1 of the operating system, to be exact.
But an antitrust expert is of the view that the EU should have imposed a much smaller fine.
A professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, Nicholas Economides (cool name) talking to IBD said that the fine was absolutely huge. More so when you consider that Microsoft confirmed that it was a technical glitch that blacked the browser ballot screen from reaching European computers:
“This fine is extraordinary. It’s huge, for something that for all intents and purposes looks like a mistake. Microsoft should have been careful to not have a technical glitch. But to charge them more than $700 million on a technical glitch sounds excessive to me.”
Needless to say he echoes the views of most in the technology industry.
Redmond, on the other hand, released a statement soon after the ruling was out that it had no intention to appeal the fine, and it was willing to pay whatever amount the EU commission decided on once the investigations were over.
What’s good for one should be good for another – I think the EU should start concentrating on Apple now!