Euro MP thinks Microsoft should be banned from government contracts
Should we be doing business with a convicted monopolist?
A MEMBER of the European Parliament has raised the question as to whether Microsoft should be banned from all government procurements in Europe.
Heidi Rühle, a member of the EU Parliament who represents Germany's Green Party, has formally tabled a question - which is actually more of a suggestion - asking if Microsoft ought to be deemed to have failed to meet the EU conditions required to participate in public procurements in European Union countries.
The specific conditions she refers to are stated in the EU's Article 93(b) and (c) of Financial Regulation.
She has web page about this, in German. Pamela Jones at Groklaw obtained the English translation of a central paragraph, as follows:
"Here the question arises whether Microsoft can be excluded in the future from all advertisements of public jobs - no matter, whether it concerns new software for the public library of a town or the mechanism of a database for a federal authority."
Heise has the question form, in English, here (pdf). The specific criteria in question are laid out as follows:
"Pursuant to... [citations omitted], candidates or tenderers shall be excluded from participation in procurement procedures if: (b) they have been convicted of an offence concerning their professional conduct by a judgment which has the force of res judicata; (c) they have been guilty of grave professional misconduct proven by any means which the contracting authority can justify;" (emphasis in the original)
More discussion of this surprising development in Euroland will follow soon. µ
See Also
Eurocrats
hit Microsoft for $1.3 billion
EU
questions Microsoft on ISO file format vote
EU
opens new investigations into Microsoft
L'Inq
Groklaw
Comments
Go Girl!
Yes yes yes!!!Go for it Heidi, kick them out of the EU.
I wouldn't mind see them gone with their nasty behaviour and faul "competition".
Shall be excluded
unless financial reparations in brown envelopes* are immediately forthcoming!Or does shall really mean may?
*or offshore bank accounts
This may benefit MS, if...
it is ammended so that prior offenses are disregarded, and is effective going forward... EuroFed may also be pressured by some pro-MS factions to refrain from persecution of voles. This policy is equivalent to capital punishment of voles, who'd have no hope for parole. I'd think it would be unpopular with many of the varied bureaucracy. There may eventually arise compatibility issues.Gotta love Europe
Europe, the place where being successfull is a CRIME!Gotta love the USA
Where being a criminal means you're successful!The Big One
What may have happened here amounts to nothing less than an *organized crime* against all nations of the world. If MS thinks that they were in trouble with the EU/EC before, if it can be proven that they falsely gained ISO votes through bribery, making a mockery of an International Standards Organization, ...these are things that END companies.I, being a Canadian, am ashamed that only the EU has had the balls to stand up to Microsoft so far on their arrogant capitalist rampage. I can understand the US's partisan inaction, but other governments who take a *grin and bear it* approach while international rights and freedoms are compromised are just not doing their jobs of protecting their citizens.
The EC knows only too well that all it will have to do is uncover one documented case and associated paper trail leading to Microsoft to clinch this case. And, with the past history of EU mistrust for Microsoft, I wonder what the chances are that some *plants* were set up ahead of time to gather evidence...about 100%?
After which, it clearly comes down to a case of trust. Elsewhere in our laws we do not allow repeat offenders to continue to re-offend, we isolate them from society for our protection. If they rigged ISO, on top of all the other history of anti-competitive business practices, I think this would fall squarely under the *repeat offender* category.
If so, should the EU continue to place their trusted data in the *closed-source, black-box* software, produced by a company which does not seem to respect EU laws or international organizations? Especially when more secure, more international, and more economical open-source solutions are available to replace all these obsolete products? I would say, no. This will effectively trigger a domino effect which will lose the entire business market for MS. Oops!
Should these products still even be allowed for sale in the EU if this has in fact occurred? I think that Heidi is right, if they have abused the ISO process, after repeatedly disregarding other requests of the EU, they should lose the market they have proven themselves unworthy to serve. Even if the EU does not decide to completely halt the import and sale of MS products, they sure are free to put a 700% import duty on all MS products (a more cost-effective approach as opposed to repeated and expensive tax-payer-funded litigation). Copy of Vista for $1200 USD anyone? Didn't think so.
MS = Evil
Anyone remember BeOS, was very good and growing.Microsoft sued then to bankruptcy, Be won, but lost everything over nothing.
That's EVIL practice M$ does.
Competition should be fair, you can outrun somebody, but not kill them with dirty tricks.
M$ is full of such crap.
So ban M$ in Europe, you have my vote :-)
DrDos, same crap
OS/2, same
and on and on and on...
BeOS, really?
Ive never heard of MS sued BeOS to bankruptcy, can you provide a link?I like this girl, I think it is right to exclude MS. You reap what you saw. If MS uses ugly methods in OOXML and gets fined all the time, something is wrong. We have to show that we dont accept this MS behavior