Small Companies Look To Move Antitrust Suits To Europe

from the come-to-Europe-for-the-history,-stay-for-the-regulatory-smackdowns dept

Following the EU's decision to smack down Microsoft for antitrust violation, we had already noted how this could mean trouble for other successful tech companies. Of course, that just means it's an opportunity for less successful companies. The Financial Times notes that small companies that have been unable to get much traction in their attempts to brand their bigger, more established competitors as monopolists, may now try to move those cases to Europe, where they hope to receive more favorable rulings. That seems a bit extreme and, one would hope, unlikely to succeed in most cases. Still, we have seen more questionable IPOs moving to Europe, so why not more questionable antitrust cases as well?
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Filed Under: antitrust, europe
Companies: ibm, microsoft, psi


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  1. identicon
    LarryV, 24 Sep 2007 @ 10:37pm

    Europe is just not as leasy to manipulate?

    In most European countries, the Europeans haven't centralized their court system and anti-trust system as much as the U. S., either.

    One single point of control (Washington DC) is much easier for the big money to manipulate.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    dorpus, 24 Sep 2007 @ 11:04pm

    The alternative

    Do we want to live in a society where companies make bomb threats in other cities as a form of advertisement? It's better to sue such companies out of existence.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Sep 2007 @ 2:04am

    Do you hate Europe so much that you have to post such crap article?
    Microsoft was (and is) a convicted monopolist (even in the US, if not for the administration change in 2000, MSFT might not have gotten off the hook that easily).
    Also there's a way to control wether or not you have a monoply (the term is actually pretty accurately defined).
    Don't assume that because MSFT was convicted it means that other will be convicted that easily (MSFT case was pretty clear cut anyway).

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    Vincent Clement (profile), 25 Sep 2007 @ 4:31am

    Re:

    At worst, Microsoft was found guilty of monopolistic behaviour. Semantics perhaps, but a slight difference that is important.

    As to Europe, well, anything American is an easy target. France has always looked at developing a French version of various Google services. Europeans are a funny bunch. Governments invest billions into Airbus, farm subsidies and so on, but have the nerve to file anti-trust suits against large American companies.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. Small Companies Look To Move Antitrust Suits To Eu

    I hope the EU do not allow this to happen. Microsoft is a special case. But that does NOT mean that this should open the pandora's box for other failing companies to capitalize on.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Sep 2007 @ 7:50am

    So techdirt desends to the level of writing flame bait as a means to generate traffic - this isn't even a story; all the references are to old techdirt items on the same subject, and clearly techdirt's understanding isn't improving.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Bob Jones, 25 Sep 2007 @ 8:17am

    Vincent, American subsidizes Boeing and other companies, just in private.

    Europe has the nerve? The company was operating in Europe.
    I guess we Europeans are crazy ones, enforcing our law in our sovereign land ... I guess we should take a cue from America and enforce our laws worldwide, wherever we see fit ...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    emichan, 25 Sep 2007 @ 9:54am

    Re:

    So techdirt desends to the level of writing flame bait as a means to generate traffic - this isn't even a story; all the references are to old techdirt items on the same subject, and clearly techdirt's understanding isn't improving.

    This is hardly flame bait. This is what Techdirt does - it provides its own analysis/viewpoint on the news. This is commenting on the Financial Times article, not just older TD items. Three words: reading comprehension skills. ;)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. Techdirt.com news stories, the most memorable and

    I just want to say that I also visit and read news at Gigaom.com (Om Malik) and Techcrunch.com as well as Slashdot.com For me, Techdirt.com stories are just like what a candy is to kid. They are intoxicating! I can not stop loving their news stories and commenting. If I don't visit the site in a few days, I start feeling feverish. So, I commend all Techdirt.com staff for all their hard work. The stories are informative, interesting and entertaining. I spend about 1 hr reading the news and all the comments and chatting with my friends about them. Keep up the good work. You guys are the greatest (besides Gigaom.com!)

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