In 2009 the European Commission carried out an
investigation into Microsoft. The American software giant tied Internet
Explorer, its web browser, into Windows, the operating system in the great
majority of personal computers. This, thought the commission, might be an abuse
of its dominance in operating systems: buy a PC, and unless you took the trouble
of choosing otherwise, you would browse the web through Explorer.
In December that year Microsoft promised that until 2014 it would provide
a "choice screen", asking European Windows users whether they wanted to install
another browser. The screen first turned up in March 2010.
Jolly good—but Microsoft forgot to keep its word. On March 6th the competition
commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, said he had fined it 561m ($732m) for not
including the choice screen with 15m copies of Windows software between May 2011
and July 2012. Neither Microsoft nor the commission spotted the lapse. It seems
that eventually other companies did. The fine must sting all
the more because Microsoft’s transgression brought it little if any gain.
Explorer has fallen behind Chrome, made by Google, and Firefox, made by Mozilla,
a non-profit organisation. And people are doing more and more browsing on
smartphones and tablets, the domain of Apple, Google and their
browsers. Microsoft’s antitrust woes in Europe should have been
over. In 2004 in was fined 497m for trying its media player and server operating
systems with it PC system. In 2008 it copped another 899m penalty for failing to
comply with the commission’s ruling in that case. Lately it has been among the
accusers—of Google, which Mr. Almunia has been investigating since
2010. He suspects Google of abusing a position in online search
every bit as imposing as Microsoft’s in PC operating systems. Bing, Microsoft’s
search engine, is a distant second. The commissioner believes that Google may be
favouring its own specialised services at rival’s expense; that its deals with
publishers may unfairly exclude competitors; and that it prevents advertisers
from taking their data elsewhere. Mr. Almunia asked Google to
propose by the end of January ways of meeting his concerns. He has not yet said
what it suggested or how he will respond. European antitrust cases have a habit
of dragging on. Just ask Microsoft. We can infer from the last paragraph that ______.
A.European antitrust cases usually end quickly
B.Google will soon propose a way to solve its problem
C.Microsoft may be more experienced in dealing with antitrust cases
D.Monopoly in the area of online search and operating system will soon
vanish