Microsoft avoids formal antitrust EC probe over abusive licensing claims by settling case with CISPE

A group of 27 cloud providers have agreed to settle the complaint they lodged with the European Commission over alleged anti-competitive behavior related to the cost they pay to run Microsoft's software in their datacenters. The agreement, which will remain confidential, was voted on this afternoon by the members of the Cloud …

[Tom Chiverton 1]

Right... so it was all a stunt to get better pricing or bundles of services out of M$ ?

[DoContra]

Always has been. (To be fair, they were right).

[Rich 2]

Out of court

When out-of-court deals like this are struck, meaning the court case is abandoned, I think the court should have the power to have the case reviewed and if there is deemed a wider public interest then the case should be forced to go ahead.

All too often, cases are brought which really ought to be heard. And then some money changes hands and the perp gets away with it.

(And yes, I know this wasn’t actually a court case but the principle is the same)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Out of court

Microsoft is big enough to bypass the courts.

[agon]

Re: Out of court

There is no court case.

It has no effect on the investigation as such. The Commission could set any fine for a violation it deems appropriate.

[Zippy´s Sausage Factory]

The usual playbook

Step 1: pay the plaintiffs to go away

Step 2: write off the money you had to pay as a tax loss

Step 3: raise the prices to make back all the money

[agon]

There is a misconception here.

An antitrust case is started by a complaint. Then the company/person who reported it has no role anymore, of course they can watch the case, privide facts etc.

Microsoft settled with them for not watching their own case. But it is not in the hand of the complainant anymore.

The Commission can put any fine it deems appropriate. The case is not closed.