Seems a little odd given that they unbundled it in Europe.
Microsoft breached antitrust rules by bundling Teams and Office, EU says
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Re: Microsoft breached antitrust rules by bundling Teams and Office, EU says
#32You could make this argument about any bundling. All of the 365 products as well as similar from Adobe etc have been bundled in ways to lock out competition. Even Spotify is planning to. At some point EU needs to bring clarity to their competition laws and decide what they want the landscape to look like. Because right now they are just making up the rules as they go.
Bundling is illegal in the EU if it used to abuse a dominant market position in one market to gain a competitive advantage in another.
So what Adobe does, or what Spotify wants to do by bundling their own products within the same market, is far from the level of bundling Teams with Office, which is bundling across markets and where Office is extremely dominant.
I don't think the EU is just making up the rules here, there are rules and this case is far more egregious and more clearly in violation than the examples you gave.
Re: Microsoft breached antitrust rules by bundling Teams and Office, EU says
#33I don't understand how Microsoft gets under fire so easily, but Google bundles everything in Android, and you can't even uninstall most of them (maps, gmail etc.). Same with iphones. This is regulatory tipping the balance.
Re: Microsoft breached antitrust rules by bundling Teams and Office, EU says
#34You'd expect them to have learnt the lesson with Internet Explorer but, as someone said, there is no way a man will understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding it!
Re: Microsoft breached antitrust rules by bundling Teams and Office, EU says
#35Soon the EU will charge parents for giving their children undue advantages as well.
In all seriousness - giving yourself an advantage is obviously what all companies want to do.
Why doesn’t the EU just, for each company, say exactly what they want? I honestly don’t understand the EU - they don’t want any company to do anything to have an advantage compared to their competitors?
Seems like an exercise in mediocrity. I guess par for the course given all of the EUs top companies were all started last century. Clearly out of touch.
Edit: wow the top 15 EU companies by revenue are utilities or auto.
Re: Microsoft breached antitrust rules by bundling Teams and Office, EU says
#36What market are they monopolizing by having Teams auto start?
Re: Microsoft breached antitrust rules by bundling Teams and Office, EU says
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is far from a novel question. There is extensive statute and case law in this area across many jurisdictions. You could start at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competition_law
Sure, I'm well aware of antitrust laws, the Sherman Act, etc. If you want to look at it from that angle, what are the consumer concerns being violates by Teams being bundled and potentially replacing Zoom that was previously used? Teams isn't forced on Office users and Zoom isn't prevented, consumers still can choose.
Until everyone ends up getting a free Teams add-on, Zoom is driven out of business, and then Teams becomes a $19.99 a month per user service.
If a new competitor appears, the price drops again until they are driven away, then goes back up.
So initially it might be great for consumers because there is competition and there are choices. But it’s heading in the direction where consumers will be harmed.
Re: Microsoft breached antitrust rules by bundling Teams and Office, EU says
#38Seems a little odd given that they unbundled it in Europe.
Regulators likely decided it is worth it to create the precedent that they will be strictly examining Microsoft’s future app releases
Re: Microsoft breached antitrust rules by bundling Teams and Office, EU says
#39Soon the EU will charge parents for giving their children undue advantages as well. In all seriousness - giving yourself an advantage is obviously what all companies want to do. Why doesn’t the EU just, for each company, say exactly what they want? I honestly don’t understand the EU - they don’t want any company to do anything to have an advantage compared to their competitors? Seems like an exercise in mediocrity. I…
All EU countries indeed have systems in place to limit undue advantages that any child can have (it's called a public education system and social security and later in life just "the law").
As for anti-trust issues, you clearly don't understand them.
Re: Microsoft breached antitrust rules by bundling Teams and Office, EU says
#40Soon the EU will charge parents for giving their children undue advantages as well. In all seriousness - giving yourself an advantage is obviously what all companies want to do. Why doesn’t the EU just, for each company, say exactly what they want? I honestly don’t understand the EU - they don’t want any company to do anything to have an advantage compared to their competitors? Seems like an exercise in mediocrity. I…
All EU countries indeed have systems in place to limit undue advantages that any child can have (it's called a public education system and social security and later in life just "the law"). As for anti-trust issues, you clearly don't understand them.
You’re correct. I am not an expert on anti trust, but I do see that the EU has missed the boat on every new industry in the 21st century compared to the USA.
We will see in 100 years if regulation was the right move or not.
As for education - I doubt all public education in the EU is equivalent, or tutoring is banned, or additional resources, etc.