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Microsoft Antitrust Hearing in Europe Canceled
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| The regulators’ attendance was important, Microsoft said, because they may
| have been more sympathetic to the company’s argument that the bundling of
| Internet Explorer in Windows did not represent a breach of European law. The
| commission typically consults with the national regulators before issuing
| sanctions and fines in the case....
|
| Jonathan Todd, a commission spokesman, said the panel was puzzled by
| Microsoft’s request. He said the hearing would have been attended by Neelie
| Kroes, the competition commissioner for the European Union and ranking
| executive. Usually, the hearings are conducted only by a staff hearing
| officer.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/23/technology/companies/23soft.html?_r=1&ref=technology
Microsoft bails out of European competition hearing
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| Microsoft has turned down the chance to give oral evidence to the European
| Competition Commission - because the date clashes with a big beanfeast for
| regulators in Switzerland.
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http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/22/microsoft_pulls_out_of_ec_competition_hearing/
Recent:
Red Hat Sues Switzerland Over Microsoft Monopoly
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| £8 million a year to Microsoft, with no public bidding. And that's just the
| tip of the iceberg, say open source activists
|
| Linux vendor Red Hat, and 17 other vendors, have protested a Swiss government
| contract given to Microsoft without any public bidding. The move exposes a
| wider Microsoft monopoly that European governments accept, despite their lip
| service for open source, according to commentators.
|
| The Red Hat group has asked a Swiss federal court to overturn a three-year
| contract issued to Microsoft by the Swiss Federal Bureau for Building and
| Logistics, to provide Windows desktops and applications, with support and
| maintenance, for 14 million Swiss Franc (£8 million) each year. The contract,
| for "standardised workstations", was issued with no public bidding process,
| Red Hat's legal team reports in a blog - because the Swiss agency asserted
| there was no sufficient alternative to Microsoft products.
`----
http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/red-hat-sues-switzerland-over-microsoft-monopoly-965
Public Call for Tender Requested: Swiss Group Challenges Microsoft Contracts
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| The Swiss Federal Office for Construction and Logistics (Bundesamt für Bauten
| und Logistik, or BBL) is reported as having purchased Microsoft licenses in
| the order of 42 million Swiss francs (about $38 million). Because no public
| bids were tendered, open source organizations are now requesting a review of
| the decision.
`----
http://www.linux-magazine.com/online/news/public_call_for_tender_requested_swiss_group_challenges_microsoft_contracts
Federal government grants 42 million franks contract to Microsoft — without
tender
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| The Swiss federal government published in the Swiss Official Gazette of
| Commerce that it has granted a maintenance contract over CHF 42 million to
| Microsoft — however, without a prior tender. The monopolist apparently had
| been granted the contract under exclusion of any potential competition.
|
| The Federal Office of Construction and Logistics (BBL) apparently signed the
| maintenance contract over Windows and Office licenses, SharePoint et cetera
| in February already. A tender had never been held, so competitors had never
| been given a chance to demonstrate their own products. This, however, is
| clearly against the official regulations for acquisition of resources. A
| speaker of the Open Source corporation group /ch/open announced that the
| decision would be contested in front of the Federal Court which,
| incidentally, is a known user of the OpenOffice.org suite.
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http://blogs.fsfe.org/tonnerre/?p=38
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