FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 22, 2004
Contact: Jeffrey Mazzella
703.535.5836
CFIF Condemns European Court’s Decision Against Microsoft
"Decision will stifle innovation, is bad for economic growth and, most of all, harmful to consumers," says Center for Individual Freedom President.
Alexandria, VA —The Center for Individual Freedom today condemned the refusal of the European Court of First Instance to delay the imposition of sanctions on Microsoft while its appeal of the European Union antitrust case is being decided. The decision forces Microsoft to immediately pay a whopping $664 million fine to the EU, and compels the company to make parts of its Windows operating system available to its competitors.
"The Court, in all its infinite wisdom, clearly didn’t understand that once you let someone obtain trade secrets, you can’t give the secrecy back," said CFIF President Jeffrey Mazzella. "There’s a good reason why copyrights, trademarks and patents are protected under both American and European law — it takes time and money to develop useful products. Forcing any company to hand over its intellectual property to its competitors will stifle innovation. This is all the more true in the technology sector where the development of software takes years and tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars in capital, while copying a competitor’s computer code takes mere seconds.
"The ruling today not only chokes future innovation and economic growth, it also hits consumers squarely on the chin," said Mazzella. "The only reward Europeans will reap from today’s decision is the option to buy a stripped down version of Windows in 2005. Not to mention that they will be joined by consumers around the globe in bearing the cost of protracted litigation that will continue into the New Year and beyond."
Despite failing to grant a stay on the sanctions against Microsoft handed down in March, the ruling suggested that the European Commission should not have found the world’s largest software maker in violation of the EU’s antitrust laws to begin with.
"This makes today’s decision all the more puzzling," Mazzella said. "On one hand, the Court seemed to find much fault in the antitrust accusations leveled against Microsoft by its competitors and the European Commission. But on the other hand, the Court ruled that Microsoft would not be ‘irreparably harmed’ by having to pay the largest antitrust sanction in the history of the world in addition to being forced to hand over the keys to its success," continued Mazzella.
The merits of Microsoft’s appeal are not likely to be decided until sometime in 2006.
The Center for Individual Freedom (www.cfif.org) is a nonpartisan, constitutional and free-market advocacy organization that fights to protect individual freedoms and rights in the legal, legislative and educational areas.