10/24/00
Press Release: Japan, Switzerland, and the EU do NOT insist on breakup of Microsoft, unlike the U.S.
"Oddly, although the U.S. case against Microsoft resembles both current and previous cases against the software giant in other countries, the U.S. seems to be alone in its aggressive pursuit of breaking up Microsoft," says Kenneth Brown, President of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution. "I have interviewed officials with countries investigating Microsoft and have found they did not embrace the ideas of breaking up Microsoft to solve competition problems with the company." "We have insisted on divestiture in other competition matters," says Willy Helin, Minister Counselor for the EU in Washington, referring to the recent AOL-Time Warner case, "however, we are not recommending a break-up or divestiture of Microsoft." Recently, the EU granted Microsoft extra time to answer charges in an investigation of whether Microsoft has illegally leveraged its dominance in personal computer operating software in the server software market.
In January of 1998, Japan launched an antitrust probe of Microsoft involving software bundling, which was resolved favorably in November of 1998. Kouki Arai, First Secretary of the Economic Section for the government of Japan, commented, "We don't believe that companies can be too big, we are proud of our success with resolving competition matters with companies like Microsoft without seeking divestiture or break-up." When asked to comment about Japan's success with resolving competition matters, Mr. Arai commented, "In general, our country is averse to extensive legal disputes.
"In February of this year, a Swiss competition body launched a probe to investigate Microsoft's pricing of its products. Rafael Corazza, of the Price Surveillance commission commented, "Switzerland is quite successful with resolving competition disputes. We credit some of our success to spending time preparing convincing analysis to the parties involved." On the topic of divestiture and break-up of companies, Mr. Corazza remarked, "no governing body of Switzerland has the authority to order the break-up of a company which is already established." The Swiss anticipate completing their investigation of Microsoft next year.
"Our global partners value Microsoft, an American company. Isn't it curious that certain American officials do not?" says Brown.
For more information, please contact Kenneth Brown at kenbrown@adti.net or (703) 351-4969 at the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution (AdTI).
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