Europe's regulators have decided that Microsoft Windows is not an acceptable product, and they don't care how many consumers disagree.
First, the European Commission used antitrust powers to order Microsoft to pay a record-setting fine of $670 million. Then it ordered Microsoft to open parts of Windows operating code to the public, and to separate its Media Player from the rest of Windows.
How come Europeans know so much more about PCs and software than you and I do (or than US antitrust authorities do, for that matter)? They don't. But Europe has become a convenient forum for business competitors to block global market leaders like Microsoft.
The result is that no legal battle, not just antitrust, is ever really settled. Microsoft appealed Europe's penalties and order, but in December Europe's initial appeals court refused to suspend them. The appeal will continue, but as a practical matter Microsoft has to knuckle under for now.
For consumers, this means Microsoft has to waste time and money decoupling one of its most popular features from Windows, rather than reinventing its products for the future. Too bad Europe is more interested in showing it can swat down an American corporate giant than in enhancing consumer welfare across the globe. Today one giant and tomorrow perhaps the broader US software industry.
When companies can’t compete, they turn to the heavy hand of government to bash their more successful competitor. Why didn't the Commission pick on Eurodisney? Because Eurodisney is floundering while Microsoft is booming. And that is the real threat and why every industry should be criticizing the ruling. If the EU can nail a successful software company, it can nail any successful company.
The result will be that a handful of European bureaucrats are dictating company practices for the whole world.