1994 MS EC undertaking

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

I received a copy of the 1994 MS EC undertaking today.  It is 12 pages double
spaced, plus a signature page.  The agreement closely tracts the DOJ consent
degree.  Like the DOJ agreement, it does not apply to NT or MS Office, so that
MS can do all sorts of exclusionary and discriminatory things with its NT and
Office licenses, without violating the undertaking.  

However, are a few twists.  In particular, the EC undertaking says that:

V.A.1

Microsoft acknowledges that it may be necessary for the Commission to determine
the extent to which this Undertaking is implemented.  For this purpose,
Microsoft will supply such information as the commission may from time to time
request.


	CPT comment:  EU consumers could ask the EC to determine whether or not MS is
using its leverage in the pricing of NT and MS Office to defeat the purposes of
the undertaking, which in any event is only applied to Windows/3.1/95/98.  That
is, was the undertaking fundementally flawed, because it failed to recognize the
source of MS's leverage on the OEMs?  The failure of any major OEMs to offer
pre-installed options of Linux, FreeBSD or BeOS might be the basis, as would the
report that MS would require Dell to pay a rebate of $200 million on its
licenses if it actively markets a non-MS OS.  EU consumers should also ask dg4
to consider the evidence in the US trial and determine if MS's ability to use
discriminatory pricing of its Windows, NT and Office licenses gives MS so much
practical control over OEMS that consumers have been denied choices of non-MS
OSs and non-MS applications.  

	A review of these types of issues appears to be anticipated in the 1994
agreement, and EU consumers have a right to ask the EC to explain what if
anything has been done to monitor the success of the agreement.

  Jamie Love <love@cptech.org>

  
-- 
James Love, Consumer Project on Technology
P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
202.387.8030; f 202.234.5176
http://www.cptech.org, mailto:love@cptech.org