Microsoft Corp. is drawing on its extensive financial resources and lobbying clout to try to overturn antitrust sanctions levied against it by the European Union (EU), and the company is pushing U.S. government officials for help.
After months of settlement talks between the company and EU antitrust authorities broke down, the company last week was hit with the largest antitrust fine in history and ordered to make changes to its dominant Windows operating system sold in Europe.
Company officials have said they would appeal, but they also said they still hope the case would be settled. Microsoft's strategy is to build political pressure on European officials to reconsider, using as leverage the prospect that the ruling could damage U.S.-EU trade relations, cause rifts in international antitrust enforcement and violate world intellectual-property treaties.
The company also is warning that future innovation could be threatened if it is required to decouple its software for playing digital music and video from its Windows operating system.
The EU ruled that by integrating those features, the company used the distribution power of its Windows monopoly to squelch media players made by competitors. Under its ruling, Microsoft must make two versions of Windows available in Europe, one with the media player and one without, allowing computer makers to decide which media-playing software to package with new machines.
Microsoft's extensive, $6 million-a-year Washington lobbying operation kicked into high gear on Capitol Hill last Wednesday, when the EU announced its ruling, according to two congressional staffers who received calls from Microsoft's government affairs operation.
Throughout that day, more than 15 senators and House members from both parties issued statements criticizing the ruling, warning of economic harm to the United States and a possible trade war with Europe.
"These actions will result in declining exports and decreasing market share and more specifically will mean fewer jobs in the United States," wrote Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., on behalf of a Senate Republican working group known as the High Tech Task Force. The ruling, if it stands, "will cost us thousands of jobs in the United States, precisely when we need them most."
Company officials have said they would appeal, but they also said they still hope the case would be settled. Microsoft's strategy is to build political pressure on European officials to reconsider, using as leverage the prospect that the ruling could damage U.S.-EU trade relations, cause rifts in international antitrust enforcement and violate world intellectual-property treaties.
The company also is warning that future innovation could be threatened if it is required to decouple its software for playing digital music and video from its Windows operating system.
The EU ruled that by integrating those features, the company used the distribution power of its Windows monopoly to squelch media players made by competitors. Under its ruling, Microsoft must make two versions of Windows available in Europe, one with the media player and one without, allowing computer makers to decide which media-playing software to package with new machines.
Microsoft's extensive, $6 million-a-year Washington lobbying operation kicked into high gear on Capitol Hill last Wednesday, when the EU announced its ruling, according to two congressional staffers who received calls from Microsoft's government affairs operation.
Throughout that day, more than 15 senators and House members from both parties issued statements criticizing the ruling, warning of economic harm to the United States and a possible trade war with Europe.
"These actions will result in declining exports and decreasing market share and more specifically will mean fewer jobs in the United States," wrote Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., on behalf of a Senate Republican working group known as the High Tech Task Force. The ruling, if it stands, "will cost us thousands of jobs in the United States, precisely when we need them most."
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